Thank you very much, Speaker, and good morning, colleagues.

I am proud to rise in the House today to begin third reading of Bill 188, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024. Before I begin, I’d like to note that I’ll be sharing my speaking time today with my colleagues: the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity and parliamentary assistants the member for Markham–Thornhill and the member for Thornhill. You’ll hear from them, Mr. Speaker, the important foundational work that we’ve done in recent years.

We’re focused on delivering better outcomes for children and youth across the province, including those in the child and youth services sector who are some of the most vulnerable individuals in our province. We’ve committed to ensuring that they are safe and supported in childhood and have the right foundations as they transition into adulthood.

Speaker, we’re here today because we will not leave any child or youth behind, and we’re committed to ensuring that they have every chance to thrive and succeed regardless of their circumstance or history. I say that because while our past is important, it’s even more important to focus on where we’re going.

We listened when sector partners spoke about the need to implement measures that will better protect the rights of children and youth, that will enhance the quality of out-of-home-care services and improve the accountability of service providers. That’s why this bill includes a broad range of legislative proposals supported by important regulatory and policy changes.

Before I review these proposals in more detail, I’d like to share some of the feedback that we’ve heard since Bill 188 was introduced last month. Let me start with Carly Kalish, the executive director of Victim Services Toronto. This is what Carly had to say. She says:

“We commend ... the government for their commitment to improving the safety, well-being and privacy of children and youth in care through the introduction of the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024. Every child deserves a safe and supportive environment to thrive, and these changes mark a significant step toward achieving that goal.... We look forward to seeing the positive impact of these measures on the lives of Ontario’s children and families.”

Building on that, Leena Augimeri, the director of the Child Development Institute, said, “I applaud our Ontario government.... They introduced legislation that shows they do care by enhancing protections and accountability for children and youth in care and helping to strengthen the systems that are designed to help them.”

It’s so special to hear such strong support from voices from within the system. We’ll keep working with them so that every child and youth has an opportunity to succeed.

Our government will continue to work towards a province where all children, youth and families are empowered with the resources and supports they need. Our proposals would, if passed:

(1) Modernize and standardize important safeguards throughout the child and youth services sector. This includes stronger enforcement tools to hold licensed out-of-home care operators accountable, and to keep children and youth safe and healthy.

(2) Create a framework that would enhance privacy protections for those individuals who were formerly involved in the child welfare system. This will be done by further restricting access to records comprised of their personal childhood histories once regulations are developed.

(3) Enable individuals to speak freely about their lived experience and give them more control over what they want to share publicly. These circumstances will be outlined in regulations following further consultations with the sector.

(4) Provide authority to expand the information that individuals working with vulnerable children and youth can be required to provide. This would go beyond formal police record checks, such as offence declarations.

(5) Reinforce the requirement for children’s aid societies and out-of-home care licensees to explain the role of the Ombudsman and how children and youth can contact their office.

(6) And finally, the bill clarifies that early childhood educators can be subject to an offence for failing to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be in line with requirements for other professionals, like teachers and social workers.

This bill encompasses a suite of changes that can be grouped into three themes. The first is strengthening oversight and enforcement of licensed out-of-home care. The second is establishing clear and consistent practices, and the third theme is supporting stable transitions.

I’d like to describe the specific actions we’re proposing to take under each theme and how they will foster better outcomes for children and youth. First, by strengthening the oversight and enforcement of licensed out-of-home care, we’re working to enhance the safety of children and youth. I want to be clear that there are many hard-working people in the out-of-home care sector, such as foster and group homes, who dedicate themselves to the children and youth that they serve. Many strive to provide the best possible support to vulnerable young people who are experiencing some of life’s most difficult circumstances. This is hard work, but it’s important work, and they have my profound gratitude for the commitment of supporting those that they care for.

However, not all service providers achieve that standard, and some don’t always operate in compliance with licensing requirements. To us, this is simply unacceptable. Let me be clear: The changes that we’re proposing in this part of the legislation will have little or no impact on the operators who are already complying with the licensing requirements, but in cases where operators are knowingly or repeatedly contravening licensing requirements and putting children and youth at risk, the proposed changes will establish new and enhanced enforcement tools to allow the ministry to take action, and our commitment to young people demands nothing less.

The legislative changes in this bill will modernize and standardize important safeguards in the licensed out-of-home care sector. The amendments would strengthen the ministry’s oversight of foster care and group homes, improve the quality of care for children and youth and introduce additional or strengthened enforcement tools.

These proposals are aimed at enhancing compliance with licensing requirements. They would help ensure that everyone receives high-quality care that supports their health and safety, as well as empowering them to reach their full potential.

I’d like to share a few additional comments that we’ve received since this bill was introduced which relate directly to these proposals. First, from Susan Somogyi Wells, CEO of Family Service Ontario, who says, “[We] strongly support this legislation for its commitment to safeguarding the well-being of our children and youth, mitigating the risks of developmental trauma.”

Julie Despaties, the executive director and founder of Adopt4Life, says, “We’re encouraged to see this recognition of the need for improved safeguards for vulnerable children and youth.... These children and youth deserve our highest commitments, collectively, to supporting their safety and well-being, their healthy development and long-term successful outcomes, including the protection of their privacy and personal information after they have left the child welfare system.”

Again, Speaker, such strong support means a lot, and our government is committed to seeing these changes come to fruition.

I’ll now turn to the second theme that I mentioned earlier, which is clear and consistent practices. By establishing practices that are clear and consistent, we aim to improve the safety and quality of services delivered by all providers. We’re proposing six actions in this area.

First, to improve the safety of all children and youth, we propose to clarify that service providers, such as children’s aid societies, can share personal information with the College of Early Childhood Educators and the Ontario College of Teachers. Service providers are already authorized to share personal information with colleges of regulated health professions and social work colleges. This simply clarifies and spells out that these two colleges are also included. This will better support the safety of children and youth by reducing potential delays in sharing information that could be used to support proceedings such as investigations, hearings and new registrations. This could apply in cases where a college requires information from a society about a verified allegation against an early childhood educator or teacher.

For our second action, we propose to enable the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers to share information in particular circumstances with governing bodies and others, including children’s aid societies. Several professional colleges already have this authority in their governing legislation, including the College of Early Childhood Educators, the Ontario College of Teachers and other regulated health professionals. To improve the safety and well-being of children and youth, we want to make this authority consistent across the board.

During an investigation, this reform would help enable timely information sharing about a member to support responsive action. Currently, if a person engaged in the administration of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers Act believes that a member poses a risk to others, they would be prohibited by the act from sharing their concerns with anyone without the member’s consent or until after the college has investigated and the results of the investigation are made public.

A practical example of this was when a social worker had their membership revoked by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers in February 2023, for professional misconduct involving sexual abuse and sexual misconduct with a student. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is important: The college opened their investigation in August 2019, but the legislation prevented them from sharing their concerns with others, such as new employers or other professional colleges, for four years. Unacceptable situations like this are why we are proposing these amendments, and if passed, they’d help us ensure that scenarios like this never happens again.

Again, I want to be very clear that our commitment is to young people. We want to make sure that they succeed and thrive, and young people demand nothing less. That’s why our third action, in order to support the long-term success of adoptions and to keep children safe, is to bring forward future regulations that would require children’s aid societies to do the following for children in adoption-placement settings: conduct safety assessments, create safety plans as needed and create plans of care. Right now, children’s aid societies are required to take these steps for children in care when they’re in other types of placement settings. Our goal is to include similar requirements for adoption-placement settings as well.

The fourth action we’re taking is to strengthen existing requirements for children and youth to know and exercise their rights. This includes additional clarity proposed in the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017, to ensure that children and youth are informed about the Office of the Ombudsman. This change would help clarify the requirement for children’s aid societies and licensed out-of-home-care providers to notify children and youth that they have the right to be informed about the Ombudsman and their role. Vulnerable youth and children deserve to have private and frank conversations about the care that they’re receiving. We want all children and youth receiving services to understand their rights under the act, because the legislation’s paramount purpose is to promote their best interests, their protection and their well-being.

Further, for our fifth action, we propose to clarify that early childhood educators would be subject to an offence for failing to report a child protection concern to a children’s aid society. This proposal would make it clear that all early childhood educators can be subject to the same offence as other individuals who perform professional or official duties with children, such as teachers and social workers, if they fail to report a child protection concern.

Finally, to further improve the safety of those who are in care or receiving services, we are proposing to provide the Lieutenant Governor in Council with the authority to make regulations for information other than formal police record checks, such as an offence declaration, to be required for individuals who are working or providing services within the sector. In addition, our government intends to bring forward future regulations to standardize police record check requirements for the child and youth services sector.

Those are the six key actions we propose taking to establish clear and consistent practices.

Madam Speaker, I’ll now turn to the third theme that I mentioned earlier, and that’s supporting stable transitions. Under this theme, we’re proposing two actions which aim to support children and youth as they transition to adulthood. First, we propose to enhance privacy protections for individuals with previous involvement in the child welfare system. We’ve heard concerns from former children and youth in care about their personal information being held in perpetuity and accessible in society databases. There are many examples when this information has been used negatively to impact their futures. Individuals involved in the child welfare system as children have many details recorded about themselves over the course of service, much in the same way that any parent would observe their own children’s experiences growing up. However, parents don’t permanently record this information, nor do they use it to prevent their children’s ability to succeed in the future. Children raised in care deserve the same respect. Restricting access to and disclosure of these records would create a framework that would protect the private details of the childhood experiences of these children and youth and allow them to regain control over their own information.

I’d like to share some of the public feedback that directly relates to this third theme.

From Carina Chan: “As a former youth in care and a lawyer who practises family law and child protection law, I support the proposed amendments set out in Bill 188.... I have seen first-hand how childhood histories and records can be used as ammunition when former youth in care become parents themselves or seek employment in the child welfare sector, even though they were in care due to circumstances entirely outside of their control. Individuals who were involved with the child welfare system as children deserve to have their personal information kept confidential so they can have a fresh start as they transition to adulthood.”

Likewise, from Nadia George, a volunteer at the Child Welfare Political Action Committee: “A new era is marked! One that could give those who have lived experience in the child welfare system the much-needed privacy and protection rights we deserve. This is something myself and others at the Child Welfare PAC have been advocating for since 2016. Thank you ... for letting current and former foster kids know we matter.”

Speaker, we agree with the Child Welfare Political Action Committee, which is why our government is pro-posing to make changes that would, once regulations are developed, enable individuals who have a history in child protection involvement to publicly identify themselves and speak about their own experiences with child protection, if they choose to do so. This would help clarify the rules for publishing this type of information and give individuals more control and ownership over their own personal stories and experiences.

To all members: The Supporting Children’s Futures Act is not the first step that we have taken to improve child welfare, nor will it be the last. It is simply another important step towards a brighter future for some of the most vulnerable children in youth in our province. The proposed legislative changes, as well as the regulatory and policy changes that I’ve just outlined, move us closer to achieving our government’s vision where no child or youth is ever left behind.

This bill is the result of the collaboration and the valued input of children, youth and families with lived experience in the child and youth services sector. I’d like to thank many individuals who have shared their feedback with us over the past six weeks and those who have attended and presented their perspectives to the committee at public hearings, and we will continue to hear from you as we build a province where everyone has the resources and supports they need to succeed.

I would like to take a moment to thank several people who have made all of this possible. I want to start off with:

—the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, Denise Cole, for her leadership;

—our many amazing ADMs, but I want to name in particular ADM Linda Chihab and ADM Rupert Gordon;

—from my own team, Sean Forsyth, Kimiya Zamani, Gregory Smith and Chris Clarke;

—of course, the amazing parliamentary assistants Laura Smith, Logan Kanapathi and Nolan Quinn; and

—last, but certainly not least, my chief of staff, a strong voice for the youth and children in care who had so much to contribute to this bill. Thank you so much to Jane Kovarikova for all her leadership and support.

Madam Speaker, with that, I’d like to turn things over to the amazing colleague I have here, the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, Minister Williams.

Good morning, colleagues.

Speaker, I want to welcome Community Living Ontario CEO Chris Beesley, Jo-Anne Demick and Lisa Tabachnick to Queen’s Park; also, from Community Living Toronto, CEO Brad Saunders, Cooper Saunders and Jennie Chanda and everyone else who is here from the variety of Community Livings across the province.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. I look forward to seeing you at your reception.