An emotional board of directors of Brant Family and Children’s Services met Tuesday evening and, in an unprecedented move, voted to resign together on Friday after failing to get provincial officials to address a deficit the board says was created by the government.

“Kids could die,” said Andy Koster, executive director of the Brant Family and Children’s Services.

The board sent the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services a message in June, warning that if it didn’t get “sufficient and meaningful assurance by July 5 that the ministry would address its funding problems, it would resign.”

With no support in sight from the government, board members unanimously voted to tender their resignations on Friday, saying they could no longer fulfil their mandate.

“We can’t go on in a deficit,” said Koster. “And we can’t do any more layoffs.”

The board says there was no choice since board members individually would eventually become responsible for the agency’s deficit, which is over half a million for this year alone.

The agency also has an accumulated debt of $3 million.

Koster said Tuesday that he expects the move will also mean the end of his 47-year career as a child care worker, with the last two decades as the executive director of children’s aid in Brantford.

Without a board, the government will be forced to step in, as it did in the case of the Brantford General Hospital where the board and top executives were dismissed.

“But I fully support the board in this decision. They are doing this in the best interests of the kids of Brantford and New Credit.”

The ministry disagrees, saying in a statement released Wednesday that the local opioid crisis hasn’t had a financial impact on the agency and, with the board resigning, it plans to appoint a supervisor to “operate and manage the affairs of Brant FACS so that services are transitioned seamlessly.”

The statement also said the agency was funding services “outside its mandate” and delivering service in an “inefficient manner and in ways inconsistent with best practises of other similar sized children’s aid societies.”

But board chair Paul Whittam said the deficit hanging over the board’s heads was caused by the ministry and that the ministry refuses to take ownership of it. Whittam made his comments in a letter that went to the government, local mayors and band chiefs last month.

“Our concern is that our financial problem was created by the ministry, not by our actions,” wrote Whittam, “and that the ongoing arbitrary actions of the ministry will exacerbate our financial issues.

“(It) will inevitably, in our view, put child protection services in our community at risk.”

The deficit the board is struggling with is new. Until 2017, BFACS had a fairly balanced budget and was considered well governed and careful with funding.

But in 2017, the ministry removed $780,000 from the BFACS budget to turn over to the new Six Nations child protection service, Ogwadeni:deo.

“To put it bluntly, the financial difficulties began with, and have continued due to, the manner in which child protection services were devoted to the designated indigenous child protection society now known as Ogwadeni:deo,” said Whittam.

The new Six Nations service has received millions of dollars in start-up funding, said Koster.

While BFACS is fully supportive of Ogwadeni:deo, Koster says the process, which hasn’t gone as quickly as expected, means that only 12 children have actually been moved into the care of the new agency in a year and a half.

“We support the Six Nations agency but the government has to fund us properly, too.”

The government has also cut child protection services provincially by $28 million, and those funds have to be trimmed from all agencies.

More worrisome, as Brantford is in the midst of a worsening opioid crisis, BFACS is taking in more children as their parents face their drug demons.

“This crisis is terrible,” said Koster. “On one team, we have workers dealing with over a dozen expectant addicted moms who will give birth in the next month.”

The combination of the reduced BFACS funding and the increase in drug problems means the agency currently has more kids in care than before but less money to deal with them.

For the last seven years, the agency has had no funding increases from the government even though union wages go up annually.

BFACS has already frozen the pay of non-union staff and senior managers and cut the pay offered to on-call workers. Koster hasn’t had a pay raise in about four years.

And in April, the executive director reluctantly cut 26 employees – 14 per cent of the agency workforce – moving their work to those left who were already being over-burdened by new cases.

“The deficit incurred over the past two years is the direct result of imposed government decisions, directives and underfunding,” Koster said in a news release.

He and his board have repeatedly pleaded for a meeting with the minister of Children, Community and Social Services and have been stonewalled.

“Unfortunately, ministry officials expressly refused to recognize that our community is in crisis,” Koster said.

Instead, Koster said, the agency was subjected to an “operational review” where a team came to inspect their systems and finances.

But, he said, while the verbal feedback was that the agency has been well-governed and had good financial controls, the ministry officials advised him that they would recommend moving away from the highly-regarded community model that’s brought child protection workers from as far as China to come to tour facilities.

Koster said those services, which put workers out where they can address family issues before there’s a need to take a child into care, have proven to reduce costs. Dismantling them will impact numerous other community partners.

“Children and families will pay the price.”

According to the ministry, there’s no evidence the Brant opioid crisis, which has been described as one of the worst in the country, second only to Kelowna, B.C., is causing any of the financial issues at the agency.

“Our top priority is continuing to provide service to the children, youth and families who rely on Brant FACS,” said press secretary Christine Wood in an email response.

“Our ministry has been taking the necessary steps to ensure that the board’s decision has no impact on the safety of children in care.”

Wood said ministry representatives have tried to help the agency by requiring regular deficit reporting and planning and having meetings to train them or urge them to make changes.

Wood said the operational review by the ministry resulted in “significant concerns” and 72 draft recommendations.

Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma, who was approached several times by Koster and the board, seemed puzzled by the resignation announcement.

“I have no idea why they’re doing this,” Bouma said Wednesday.

“I find it unfortunate the board no longer wants to work with the ministry on this file. I’ve seen the numbers and their budget is bigger this year than last year.”

Bouma said the ministry will make sure operations at the agency continue regardless of whether the resignations take effect.

Koster refuted Bouma’s contention that the agency’s budget was higher this year. The $24.1 million budget is $195,600 slimmer for 2018-19 and does nothing to address the burgeoning deficit.

Monique Taylor, NDP critic for children and youth services, responded to Wednesday’s news by saying Koster wasn’t exaggerating when he said children could die due to a lack of funding.

“Instead of addressing the dangerous underfunding caused by the Liberals, Doug Ford is taking things from bad to worse,” said Taylor.

Kevin Hodge, vice president of the board and an adoptive parent to four, was the board’s last hold-out on the unanimous vote to resign.

“This is heartbreaking,” he said Tuesday night.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that it’s come to this.”

Hodge said he’s pleading with the ministry to “make it right.”

“This was a huge decision and I had my reservations but the status quo is not working and we’re at an impasse. I don’t want to make more cuts and have to live with their consequences.”

Susan Holyome, a board member with the agency for 35 years, said the vote was unprecedented.

“It’s a big heartbreak for all of us but we’ve been put in a sad situation. I feel that, in order to protect the children, we had no choice but to resign.”

Unless the ministry steps in, the board’s resignations will take effect Friday.

SGamble@postmedia.com

@EXPSGamble