Our task force concerns itself with children who experience ‘limbo’–a sense of being adrift in life because they do not feel they belong in the homes where they are placed. When risk is high, many children are taken out of their culture and placed with families that bear no resemblance to their own. For parents who were surviving on social assistance before their children were placed in CAS care, the resulting loss of income makes it almost impossible for parents to maintain a home to which children can return. A landmark study in the London and Middlesex Children’s Aid Society found that when an incoming PC government abruptly cut social assistance by 21.6%, the number of children admitted to care increased by 70% over the next 6 years.

The Children in Limbo Task Force fears that more children will be admitted to out-of-home care with the frozen social assistance rates and high inflation. Now, we are taking our concerns to the election table, and we encourage you to join us. See below a letter sent to our local MPPs on behalf of CFTL encouraging a review of Social Assistance rates. If you’d like to do the same, please find your local MPP here.