It shouldn’t take a tragedy for the Ontario government to respond to the alarm bells that are being rung by the Brantford-based Brant Family and Children’s Services.

But so far it appears that no one at Queen’s Park is listening.

After the entire board of directors of the children’s aid society resigned on Friday saying that provincial underfunding has “put the safety of our community’s vulnerable children at risk,” the government should have rushed in with support.

Instead, it made matters worse for kids in that region by ousting the agency’s well-respected executive director, Andrew Koster.

Why? Perhaps because he has long been a thorn in the government’s side by fighting against cuts that he believes are endangering kids.

Indeed, after funding cuts forced him to cut 29 jobs at his agency in March, Koster said this: “When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front-line staff and support services), children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful conditions.”

The Ford government should be mindful of that.

In its search for so-called “efficiencies,” the government has cut $84.5 million from funding to children and youth at risk throughout Ontario, including $28 million from the budget for children’s aid societies.

But to hear the provincial Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services tell it, you would think Brant brought its financial problems on itself.

The ministry points out that the agency has been operating with a deficit of $2 million and was the subject of an official review this year.

But that would appear to indicate a lack of needed funding rather than bad management considering that Brant Family and Children’s Services is far from alone in facing financial difficulties. In March, the March the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies reported that 18 of the province’s 50 children’s aid societies were operating with deficits.

Further, “initial verbal feedback” from the ministry review found that Brant was “well-governed, operated efficiently and had sufficient financial controls in place,” the agency said in a statement on Friday.

The fact is, Brant Family and Children’s Services is under duress largely because of an opioid crisis in Brantford that is putting undue pressure on families in the region.

The area had the highest rate of emergency-ward visits in Ontario for opioid overdoses in 2017: 141 per 100,000 people, compared to a provincial rate of 54. And there’s no sign that things have gotten any better since then.

While the crisis has led some child-protection workers to bring overdose kits to home visits, the ministry’s review somehow concluded there was a “lack of evidence” that the opioid crisis has contributed to Brant’s financial issues.

Further, it criticized the agency for spending money on programs outside its mandate by intervening with families to prevent children from having to go into care in the first place.

Hello! That’s exactly what they and other agencies should be doing.

As the Brant board put it: “It costs more money to keep a child in care than to have them cared for in the community. Period.” More importantly, it keeps families intact.

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The Ford government does not have a good track record when it comes to listening to experts.

But one can only hope it will not take a child’s death for the government to realize that cutting children’s aid budgets when those agencies are already under strain is no way to find “efficiencies.”

If the unthinkable happens, the government will not be able to say the alarm wasn’t sounded. It will only be able to say it failed to listen.