Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services - Unified

OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick is urging the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) to address the staffing crisis at the St. Lawrence Youth Association (SLYA) in Kingston, Ontario with increased base funding, to ensure that female youth in custody have the services and programs they are entitled to by law. Hornick outlined in...

Children, Community and Social Services Minister Merrilee Fullerton avoided the question and changed the subject when asked in Question Period to end privatized mail sorting in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which has led to delayed and suspended ODSP benefits for vulnerable clients. NDP MPP Lise Vaugeois demanded that the Minister stop contracting out...

TORONTO – The contracting-out of mail sorting in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) to a for-profit company has created chaos for ODSP clients and staff, resulting in delayed benefits and unwarranted benefit suspensions and holds. In 2018, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) hired a for-profit vendor named Nimble to sort...

More than 40 local leaders and stewards from Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) offices across the province met virtually last week with their ministry’s MERC team and OPSEU/SEFPO leaders to plan a fight-back to the downloading of their work from the Ontario Public Service to municipalities. President Warren (Smokey) Thomas and First Vice President/Treasurer Eduardo...

The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is a provincial government program that provides social assistance to people with disabilities. OPSEU/SEFPO members who work for ODSP provide compassionate and essential support to their clients, and are specially trained to understand and provide the services that people with disabilities need. The Ford government wants to change ODSP...

Toronto – OPSEU/SEFPO President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says proposed changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) announced today would create chaos and uncertainty for many of the province’s most vulnerable people. Thomas says the changes would force those with disabilities to navigate an entirely new support system, and he’s concerned such a proposal was...

Dear Minister,                                                                                                                                   There is a pending crisis looming over community services facilities in Ontario that is on pace to match the deadly wave that has overcome our long-term care homes as a result of COVID-19.  From the onset of this pandemic, too many of the solutions that will save lives have not been adequately implemented....

The Minister of Children, Community, and Social Services has responded to a letter from OPSEU’s Provincial Women’s Committee (PWC) demanding the reinstatement of the Ontario Child Advocate. Although the minister, Todd Smith, writes that “our government is working with the Ombudsman to better support the children, youth and families that interact with them,” he doesn’t...

In a letter to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, OPSEU’s Provincial Women’s Committee (PWC) is demanding that the Ontario Child Advocate be reinstated. “According to the former advocate in charge of the portfolio, Irwin Elman, his office represented children and youth who received child welfare services, youth with disabilities or mental health...

The Toronto Star has published an Op-ed by OPSEU President Warren (Smoke) Thomas in which he questions the judgement of Ontario Premier Doug Ford for hiring a foreign company to handle a for-profit welfare program. ” All this does is create wealth for a foreign interest. It creates no benefit for people who get social...

Ottawa – A strong message was delivered Friday to the doorstep of Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod: the Ford government must reverse course on its destructive program cuts. OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas, parents of children with autism and frontline professionals who work at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, joined a rally...

Toronto – OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Lisa MacLeod’s attempts to undo the harm she is causing the families of children with autism is only delaying the inevitable. Thomas called Thursday’s so-called “enhancements” to the Ford government’s autism program cuts an attempt to deflect the growing chorus...