Children’s Aid Society staff strike planned for Monday in Ottawa

Local children’s services workers are expected to begin striking Monday morning after months of contract negotiations failed to resolve what their union calls a chronic lack of funding.

Staff at the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa (CASO) have been in negotiations with the province since November after their three-year contract expired at the end of 2023.

Their strike deadline early Saturday morning expired without agreement, and they are now expected to begin picketing outside their office in Ottawa’s Pineview neighbourhood at 8 a.m. Monday.

Michele Thorn, an adoption worker at CASO and president of the local union, said the strike is the result of years of funding cuts and the fact that workers are facing burnout and increased job demands.

“We’re not robots,” Thorn said. “We just can’t keep taking in more and more and more. And that seems to be kind of the expectation.”

She said she has seen the strain on front-line workers firsthand.

“They cry in their cars every day,” she said.

Financing and protection against dismissal are among the most important demands

When striking workers eventually return to the bargaining table, they will have two main priorities: ensuring that wage increases reflect rising costs of living, and protecting themselves from layoffs.

Thorn said the union learned during negotiations that the province would lay off 20 employees at CASO, which could have “catastrophic” consequences.

CASO had a deficit of $3.3 million in the last two fiscal years. More than half of Ontario’s child welfare agencies are similarly overburdened.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents CAS workers across the province, has reported that 49 of the 53 child welfare agencies have budget deficits of $67 million, or about 30 per cent of their operating costs.

CBC reached out to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services over the weekend but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

But in a statement to CBC in June, the ministry said it had allocated $1.5 billion to 50 child welfare organizations across Ontario.

Funding for CASO is provided by the province based on the number of children served and whether care is still needed in the community.

CASO says 91 percent of the children they work with stay with their families. That shows they’ve been successful, Thorn said, but that’s not reflected in how they’re funded – and the organization actually receives less support as a result.

“We are being punished by doing a good job and keeping children out of care,” Thorn said. “People are left with nothing.”

The system is crumbling and leaving children in need

Child Protection Commissioner Eric Schonbacher said no matter what support families need – be it accommodation or mental health care – help is becoming increasingly unattainable.

“You have to work longer and harder to give people the support they need,” he said.

He added that he was “disheartened” at the way the province had handled the situation.

“It just felt different from the start,” said Schonbacher, who went through several rounds of negotiations during his ten years at CASO.

“The system is simply crumbling around us.”

“An absolute last resort”

It is not easy to step down from this job, says Schonbacher. He is worried about the children who may be left without helpers who fully understand their situation or who they can safely turn to when they need help.

“This is not the kind of job where you just turn off your laptop at the end of the day,” he said. “To just turn off your phone and not be able to help (these kids) is hard to comprehend.”

Thorn said CASO workers were keen to return to the bargaining table over the weekend. But as of Sunday, they had received no response from their employer, she said, other than emails about the logistics of online account access and returning electronic devices in the event of a strike.

“Workers want to keep working while keeping an eye on their children and families,” Thorn said. “This strike was a last resort.”