Province slashes Payukotayno budget

The executive director of a child and family welfare agency on the James Bay coast was “shocked” to discover last month that the provincial government cut their budget by almost nine per cent.
Payukotayno: James & Hudson Bay Family Services executive director Charlene Reuben did not expect the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) to cut the agency’s annual budget by $1.7 million.
“We submitted a higher budget than last year because our numbers are continuing to rise,” Reuben said, adding that the budget is usually determined by statistics. “There was no indication that our budget was going to be cut and by that amount.”
The cut has led Payukotayno to close two staff-supported receiving homes and lay off 22 full-time employees, including the managers and front-line workers who run the homes.
“(MCYS) told us we weren’t getting any additional funding and we had to live within our means,” Reuben said. “The board felt the decision would be that closing the two staff-modeled homes would be the best choice.”
“It’s sad to see happen because it doesn’t affect just our staff but also the children and families that we service.”
Receiving homes provide temporary accommodation for children and youth who have been removed from their families because of abuse or neglect and who need a period of assessment and stabilization, providing them quiet, safe places to live while in transition.
And while their closure has led some to speculate that children would be sent down south due to a lack of capacity, Reuben said that is not the case.
“(The receiving homes) weren’t at full capacity so the children that are in the homes have been placed elsewhere in the community,” she said. “We are building resources in other areas of the community, so it’s not necessary to say the children are going elsewhere.”
Aside from the receiving home closures and employee layoffs, Reuben said Payukotayno is in line to operate without any major impacts to its services.
“We felt that we were developed enough so it wouldn’t have a huge impact,” she said. “I think based on those cuts, we should be fine.”
Payukotayno will not be the only child welfare agency to be impacted by budget cuts. Included in the March 2012 provincial budget was an announcement that Children’s Aid Society agencies across the province would see a funding reduction of $16 million.
“It’s a whole province cut and we happen to be the first one,” Reuben said.
The budget cuts are part of the McGuinty government’s plan to reduce spending by $17.7 billion over the next three years and erase its $258 billion deficit by 2017-18.
Incorporated in 1984, Payukotayno has a service population of more than 13,000 people located along the James Bay and Hudson Bay coast, including Weenusk, Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Kashechewan, Moose Factory and Moosonee.