A total of 134 children died under the umbrella of Ontario’s care network in 2023, according to new data, the highest number since the provincial government began consolidating and tracking the figures.
Internal data obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws summarizes and records the number of children who died in care, with an open social work file or a case that had closed within 12 months.
Over the three years, between 2020 and 2022, an average of 118 kids were recorded to have died. The number equated to roughly one child every three days.
Now, the most recent figures show the number has risen.
In 2023, there were 134 deaths for children under Ontario’s care network, compared to 121 in 2022, 129 in 2021 and 104 in 2021.
The Ford government began tracking the data in its current configuration in 2020.
“It is very concerning,” Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser told Global News. “These children are our responsibility, our government’s responsibility — that’s what we do when someone comes into care, what we used to call a ward of the Crown. It’s our duty to make sure that they’re safe.”
The government data breaks down the ages of the 134 children who died and where they were in the system.
Among them, it shows 37 infants aged two months to one year associated with the care network died, along with 35 teenagers and 18 toddlers.
Only six of the deaths were for children actively in the care of an agency, and the vast majority — 92 — had an open child protection file. Other deaths related to children who had their child protection file closed within the past 12 months.
The government did not respond to questions from Global News, nor did it acknowledge a request for an interview with Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
Parsa previously called similar data a “profound tragedy” and said his government would do “everything we can” to ensure children have support. He did not provide a timeline or target to reduce the figures.
The government has been tracking the number of children who have died over the past four years.
Global News
Fraser said the most concerning part of the data was the number of cases recorded where the cause of death remains unknown.
In 2023, 32 per cent of recorded deaths for children associated with care were unknown. Medical deaths were the next largest cause at 25 per cent, followed by accidental at 16 per cent.
While the number of unknown deaths is lower in previous years, roughly one-third of all deaths in 2020, 2021 and 2022 were listed as undetermined.
“How do we have such a high number of undetermined reasons?” Fraser said.
“That number seems really high, it’s something you have to dive into and look at. You imagine that’s someone’s child, would that parent be satisfied with an undetermined conclusion? Well, these children, we’ve said their our children now as a government.”
The data captures all deaths, from accidents, suicides or homicides to medical situations. It includes times where neglect could be a factor, as well as situations like car accidents or medical episodes.
The government report said that 44 per cent of the deaths in 2022 and 2023 were investigated by Ontario’s chief coroner.
Irwin Elman, who worked as Ontario’s advocate for children and youth before the office was dissolved in 2019, previously said tracking the data had already been difficult.
“There is a grey area of a number, but the bottom line for me, when I think about it, was the children,” he said last September.
“They’re children who are being cared for, whose responsibility for their welfare was a system we created in Ontario… to make sure that they’re loved, cared for, nurtured, have a good life.”
The government is in the midst of financially-focused audits of Ontario’s children’s aid societies.
That audit is not directly related to the deaths of children in care but instead reports of waste in the sector. When it announced them, the government pointed out that the number of kids living in care has declined, but the costs have increased.
The audits are pencilled in to be completed by the start of summer.
Fraser suggested an all-party approach should be taken to the issue of children dying under the care network — calling on the government to collaborate and strike a committee.
“Select committees are not always the solution to everything, but it’s a start, it’s a beginning,” he said. “We’ve had them before, and they point governments in the right direction. I think it is reasonable to say this is too much, and we need to know why this is happening.”