Ford government stops reports summarizing child welfare network deaths
Global News
The government said the 'information continues to be tracked in real time,' but appears to have ended reports summarizing trends and broader patterns.
The Ford government has stopped compiling data on the death of children who have interacted with the care network, Global News has learned, ditching reports that offered insight into one of the province’s most vulnerable populations.
From 2020, Ontario began generating a summary of all children who died under the care of a children’s aid society, with an open child welfare file or whose file had been closed in the past year.
The data showed, on average, a child who had interacted with welfare within the past year died every three days. In 2023, the government reported 134 deaths associated with its care system — fatalities which could come for any reason, including accidental, medical, suspicious or suicide.
For the past two years, the data has been accessed and published by Global News using freedom of information laws. It summarizes the number of deaths, causes, age groups and whether or not the children were under the direct care of a welfare agency.
This year, however, the government said it had stopped tracking the data and therefore could not release it. Officials rejected a freedom of information request filed saying the summary of deaths has not been prepared for either 2024 or 2025.
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services did not directly answer any of the questions sent by Global News about why it had stopped, including whether it had given up tracking the data to avoid it being scrutinized.
“The death of any child or a youth is heartbreaking and deeply tragic,” part of a statement from the government read.
A spokesperson added that the “information continues to be tracked in real time.”
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