The Bruce County Children’s Aid Society is facing a funding shortfall of a quarter million dollars this fiscal year.
Executive Director Shawn Jollife says that represents about 2 to 3 per cent of their budget for 2009-10.
Jollife says in the past, any budget shortfalls were written off by the province.
But the McGuinty government is in a financial squeeze with the economic downturn and Jollife says no more money is coming.
Jollife says demand for services is up dramatically in Bruce County this year — about 10 to 20 per cent — while the budget has only increased one per cent.
Despite the budget shortfall, he says they are not cutting any programs or staff.
Jolliffe says the big concern he has is for 2010-11 because if the provincial government doesn’t boost funding — the Bruce County CAS will be facing a much more severe problem, as their deficit accumulates.
According to a release from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies — there is a 67 million dollar funding shortfall in the province this year.
Ontario CAS officials say with the province capping their funding, they won’t be able to meet minimum mandatory standards for seeing children every month and children won’t be able to visit their biological families as often.
Grey County is not one of the CAS agencies facing a budget problem this year.