After more than three weeks on strike, Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa (CASO) workers have ratified a new agreement with the agency. However, employees stress that significant challenges remain, according to their union.
“The decision to go on strike was not made lightly, but workers faced an impossible choice,” said Michele Thorn, President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454, representing over 300 CASO workers. “The conditions at the agency compromise not just our mental health but also the quality of support we provide. We are witnessing Children’s Aid Societies across Ontario being gutted. Something has to change.”
Thorn emphasized the need for urgent, interministerial action to fund CAS agencies and provide province-wide relief. Despite their efforts, Ottawa workers still face potential layoffs, with up to 38 full-time positions at risk over the three-year term of the agreement.
The issues affecting CASO workers are not unique to Ottawa. In the past six months, staffing cuts have impacted workers at the London-Middlesex Children’s Aid Society, OPSEU/SEFPO Local 116; Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Aid Society, OPSEU/SEFPO Local 334; and Linck Child, Youth and Family Support Services, OPSEU/SEFPO Local 148.
“A record number of youth are slipping through the cracks due to a lack of resources for maintaining wrap-around supports and facilitating transitions to independent living,” added Thorn. “We are mourning loss after loss while calling for change, yet the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services maintains that the status quo is effective.”
In recent weeks, the picket line served as a platform to amplify calls for systemic change. CASO workers frequently exceed their roles to address service gaps caused by funding shortages affecting community partners and other social supports.
“We are facing a critical funding crisis that affects the very heart of our services,” said Chrisy Tremblay, a member of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454, Executive Board Member for Region 4, and OPSEU/SEFPO’s Chair for Sector 4, Child Welfare. “Staff cuts and program reductions mean we can’t provide the meaningful support our children and families desperately need.”
“While workers supporting some of Ontario’s most vulnerable children brace for a child welfare crisis, this government’s focus remains on big business, the rapid expansion of alcohol sales, and shuttering beloved public institutions,” said OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick. “At what point do we prioritize children?”
In a letter of support to workers, Ontario’s former Child Advocate, Irwin Elman, highlighted the challenges. “We are six years into a government-led child welfare system ‘redesign’ that has resulted in the hollowing out of every support system serving vulnerable children and families,” he wrote. “This government-made perfect storm has placed our care systems in free fall.”
The Ford government’s overhaul of child welfare set early intervention and preventative work as priorities, but workers argue that funding has not matched the shift from traditional child protection to more resource-intensive approaches. As a result, 40 out of 44 Children’s Aid Societies are in deficit.
“The strike was the first time our struggles were heard and seen by the public and the province,” said Thorn. “We will continue standing up for children and families and fighting for better.”