On Thursday, February 9, 2017, I had the opportunity to call
Marian Mlakar, Director of Children and Youth at Risk department under the
Policy Development and Program Design department. She reports to ADM Jennifer Morris who
reports to the Deputy Minister Nancy Matthews who reports to Parliamentary
Assistant Sophie Kiwala who reports to Michael Coteau, Minister of Children and
Youth Services Ontario. http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/about/orgchart.aspx This phone call happened due to my follow-up
letter questioning the status of our provincial strategy and Ms. Mlakar wanted
to speak to me directly.
The phone call lasted about ten minutes and the following information
was shared.
Ms. Mlakar stated the policy development and program design
for FASD support is complete. It is
currently with the Minister who has placed it in the queue for provincial
funding. She also stated this project is
her main project and is following it very closely. She is hopeful that the province will be
making an announcement soon regarding the project. However, she also stated the province has
several pressing issues and isn’t sure how high a priority FASD support is to
the province. She also made reference to
the fact that the four people above her on the org chart are all new to their
positions and that she is currently reminding them of the pressing need for
this strategy.
She also stated the policy and program design is based entirely
on the provincial report released in Sept 2015.
www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/.../fasd/FASD_Roundtable_Report.pdf
She also stated that they have seen a slight increase in
public queries over the status of the strategy.
Finally, she stated once the program design has received funding, it
will immediately begin to be implemented on a full scale across the province.
Because she is not an elected member of the Ministry nor in
communications or public relations, she needed to be careful about what she
could share with me. However, it was
very clear that the only thing holding up provincial support is a current lack
of funding. Combine that with the fact
that the individuals who should be advocating for that funding are all new to
their positions, it is very clear to me we need to continue contacting Michael
Coteau, MP and Sophie Kiwala, Parliamentary Assistant of the Ministry of
Children and Youth Services, Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance and Kathleen
Wynne, Premier to make sure they understand how important it is that the FASD
program receive funding now.
Rob More
Smiths Falls
