In the year ahead, the province will launch a number of programs and initiatives that support strategies that were announced this year, including:

  • Child protection services—Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2016
  • Licensed child and youth residential services
  • Promoting well-being
  • Youth Justice Education and Skills Training Success Strategy
  • Ontario Student Assistance Program
  • Indigenous Education Strategy
  • Ontario Indigenous Children and Youth Strategy
  • Commitment to address systemic racism and discrimination
  • Ontario Black Youth Action Plan
  • Ontario's Strategy to End Human Trafficking
  • Strategy for a Safer Ontario
  • Youth engagement
  • Collective Impact for Disconnected Youth
  • Provincial approach to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
  • Employment strategy for people with disabilities
  • Game ON: The Ontario Government's Sport Plan
  • Ontario150

Strategies and Programs Supporting Outcomes

Child Protection Services

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

In Ontario, child protection services are delivered exclusively by children's aid societies and Indigenous child well-being societies. The Child and Family Services Act, 1990 governs the work of these societies, other aspects of residential care for children and youth with special needs, and other services and supports provided to vulnerable children, youth and families.

Upcoming:

  • The Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2016 was tabled in December 2016. If passed, the bill will replace the current legislation with a modern, child and youth-centred act. The proposed legislation promotes responsive and accessible child, youth and family services. It also strengthens the transparency and accountability of children's aid societies and licensed residential services by:
    • Raising the age of protection from 16 to 18 to increase protection services for more vulnerable youth in unsafe living conditions, to support their education, and to reduce homelessness and human trafficking
    • Strengthening the focus on early intervention, helping prevent children and families from reaching crisis situations at home
    • Making services more culturally appropriate for all children in the child welfare system, including Indigenous and Black children and youth, to help ensure they receive the best possible support
    • Improving oversight of service providers, including children's aid societies, so that children and youth receive consistent, high-quality services across the province
  • In additi on to the new legislation, Ontario plans to boost accountability across the child welfare system by requiring children's aid societies to publicly post financial audits and expenses.

Licensed Child and Youth Residential Services

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Child and youth licensed residential settings include group homes, foster homes, provincially operated facilities, and youth justice open and secure custody/detention facilities.

Upcoming:

  • The ministry is developing a blueprint for the reform of child and youth licensed residential services that will focus on improving the quality of care for children and youth. It will also enhance the oversight of licensed residential settings. As well, it will use data and analytics to inform decision making at all levels. The blueprint is expected to be released in spring 2017.

Promoting Well-Being

Lead: Ministry of Education

In fall 2016, the Ministry of Education began engaging with its education and community partners and others to inform a shared vision of student well-being in Ontario's publicly funded schools.

Upcoming:

  • The ministry will synthesize and analyze results of the engagement process to develop a well-being framework for students in kindergarten through Grade 12. It will work with education and community partners to guide the systematic, integrated and intentional support of well-being. It will also build on the work already underway, for all students in Ontario schools.
  • The ministry is working with Indigenous partners to co-develop a process for engaging about well-being with Indigenous people and communities.
  • The ministry-funded Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research set up a thematic knowledge network in fall 2016 to support the implementation of evidence-informed educational practices and learning environments that promote student well-being.

Youth Justice Education and Skills Training Success Strategy

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

The strategy's goals are to improve educational achievement, enhance skills attainment and increase school engagement for youth in or at risk for conflict with the law.

Upcoming:

  • Internet access for youth in the youth justice system will be piloted in 2017 in selected direct-operated facilities, probation offices and open/closed custody detention centres. Access will be for education and skills development purposes and to support employment goals. The provincial rollout of Internet access will follow, once recommendations from pilot implementation are realized.

Ontario Student Assistance Program

Lead: Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development

The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) supports qualified students and their families through grants and loans to help pay for university or college.

Upcoming:

  • Starting in the 2017–18 academic year, the government is moving forward with the single largest modernization of OSAP in its history. If the changes to OSAP were in place today, more than 210,000 students would have free average tuition. Further, about 230,000 students would have less debt than under previous OSAP rules.

Indigenous Education Strategy

Lead: Ministry of Education

Ontario's Indigenous Education Strategy sets the foundation to improve student achievement and well-being among First Nations, Métis and Inuit students. It also helps close the achievement gap between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students.

Upcoming:

  • The Implementation Plan: Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework, 2014 builds on the Indigenous Education Strategy and guides the work of the ministry and school boards.
    • The next phase of implementation will sustain established, critical activities that support system-wide integration of Indigenous perspectives into the provincial education system. It will also strengthen the collaborative relationships with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, organizations and education partners.
    • Engagement will take place in 2016–17 to support the development of a third progress report, scheduled for release in fall 2017. It will include a refreshed framework and implementation plan.
  • In collaboration with First Nations, Métis and Inuit partners, implementation will begin on initiatives demonstrating Ontario's commitment to education-related calls for action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) report:
    • In response to TRC calls to action #62 and #63, Ontario is making a three-year annual investment (2016–17 to 2018–19) of $5 million. This investment will support targeted resource development and educator capacity building to enhance age- and grade-appropriate learning and teaching of the history and legacy of residential schools, treaties and the Indian Act, 1876.
    • In response to TRC calls to action #7 and #10, Ontario is exploring the creation of a new classification for First Nations schools to build greater capacity in First Nations schools and enhance collaboration between the schools and the provincially funded education system.
    • In response to TRC calls to action #7, #14, #15, and #16, Ontario will co-host an Indigenous Languages Symposium with Indigenous partners and education stakeholders in spring 2017.
  • In 2016–17, the ministry is investing an estimated $1.2 million to ensure that all boards have a dedicated First Nations, Métis and Inuit education lead.

Ontario Indigenous Children and Youth Strategy

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Ontario is working together with First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous partners to implement the Ontario Indigenous Children and Youth Strategy.

Upcoming:

Commitment to Address Systemic Racism and Discrimination

Lead: Cabinet Office

Government is working toward eliminating systemic racism and ensuring people in Ontario benefit equally from public polices, programs and services. The new Inclusion, Diversity and Anti-Racism Division was established in February 2017 as the focal point for inclusion, diversity and anti-racism.

New! Released in early 2017, A Better Way Forward: Ontario's 3-Year Anti-Racism Strategic Plan is the province's commitment to breaking down barriers and creating fair and equitable outcomes for everyone.

  • The plan targets systemic racism by building an anti-racism approach into the way government develops policies, makes decisions, evaluates programs, and monitors outcomes. It calls for a proactive, collaborative effort from all government ministries and community partners to work toward racial equity
  • In support of A Better Way Forward, Ontario introduced anti-racism legislation in spring 2017 that will, if passed, ensure future the long-term sustainability and accountability of the government's anti-racism work

Related:

  • The Ontario government is changing the way sex and gender information is displayed on health cards and driver's licences to ensure the fair, ethical and equitable treatment of people with trans and non-binary gender identity. These changes will take place in 2017. (Ministry of Government and Consumer Services)

Ontario Black Youth Action Plan

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

New! Through the new Ontario Black Youth Action Plan, the government is investing $47 million over the next four years to support 10,800 Black children, youth and their families. This includes:

  • Investing in culturally focused parenting initiatives and mentoring programs
  • Supporting Black children to stay in school by investing in early intervention programming
  • Helping Black students access higher education through culturally focused outreach
  • Ensuring programs and policies meet the specific needs of at-risk youth through Ontario-based research
  • Helping Black youth find their career path by investing in targeted skills development programs
  • Investing in community outreach and promoting anti-violence
  • Using a collective impact approach, an innovative way of tackling deep-rooted and complex social problems by aligning efforts and existing resources across sectors to provide a local voice for Black organizations.

Upcoming:

  • An innovative approach will be taken to implement the plan. Black leaders, organizations and youth will be co-producers of the plan. An external implementation steering committee will continue to build partnerships in the community and ensure recommendations provided by Black community leaders are reflected in ongoing work. 

Ontario's Strategy to End Human Trafficking

Lead: Ministry of Community and Social Services, supported by the Ministry of the Status of Women, and Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services

Ontario is investing up to $72 million in the Strategy to End Human Trafficking. The strategy is aimed at increasing awareness and coordination, enhancing justice-sector initiatives and improving survivors' access to services.

Upcoming:

  • Initiatives targeting youth who may be at risk of being trafficked include:
    • Youth-in-Transition Workers program for youth leaving care (Ministry of Children and Youth Services)
    • The expansion of protocols for children's aid societies, Indigenous child well-being societies and police services to include a human trafficking component (Ministry of Children and Youth Services)
    • Ontario curriculum that is age and grade appropriate and relevant to current societal issues, including the awareness and prevention of gender-based violence and human trafficking (Ministry of Education)

Strategy for a Safer Ontario

Lead: Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services

This year, Ontario consulted on the Strategy for a Safer Ontario, the province's blueprint for effective, sustainable and community-focused policing.

Upcoming:

  • The cornerstone of the new strategy will be community safety and well-being planning. The goal is to improve collaborative partnerships between police and other sectors such as education, health care and social services. It will also support positive relationships between police and the citizens they serve and protect. The strategy is expected to be released in 2017.

Youth Engagement

Leads: Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and Ministry of Children and Youth Services

Recognizing and supporting meaningful youth engagement supports youth in developing self-confidence and the capacity to lead.

Upcoming:

  • The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development will be working towards establishing a permanent Minister's Student Advisory Council with students from all parts of the postsecondary education system and regions of the province.
  • As part of the Open Government initiative, the province is developing a digital engagement tool that will give young people across Ontario more opportunities to share ideas for government programs and services. (Ministry of Children and Youth Services)

Collective Impact for Disconnected Youth

Lead: Provincial Partnership Table (PPT), with representation from provincial government, public, private, non-profit and philanthropic sectors

New! The Collective Impact for Disconnected Youth (CIDY) initiative is a new approach to improve outcomes for youth who are disconnected from traditional systems of support, including school and work. The goal of this collaborative approach is to encourage collective action—at the local level—to reduce the number of youth who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

  • The PPT is guiding this work in collaboration with demonstration communities from across the province.

Provincial Approach to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Lead: Ministry of Children and Youth Services

New! The Ministry of Children and Youth Services is collaborating with other ministries to develop a cross-government approach to support people affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), across the lifespan. The provincial approach to addressing FASD will focus on five priority areas:

  • Awareness and prevention
  • Screening, assessment and diagnosis
  • Programs and services
  • Supports for parents and caregivers
  • Performance measurement and data collection

Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities

Leads: Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, ministries of Community and Social Services, Advanced Education and Skills Development, and Economic Development and Growth

New! The province is developing a provincial employment strategy for people with disabilities. Supporting the employment of youth with disabilities will be a key component of the strategy. Goals of the strategy are to:

  • Establish a cohesive made-in-Ontario vision with goals, priorities and desired outcomes to ensure Ontarians have access to a continuum of employment and training services
  • Provide a better service experience through streamlined access to employment and training services that recognize the varied needs and employment goals of individuals
  • Engage employers as active partners in breaking down employment barriers for people with disabilities and promoting inclusive workplaces

Game ON: The Ontario Government's Sport Plan

Lead: Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport

Game ON is a legacy initiative of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

Upcoming:

  • The 2017 North American Indigenous Games will be hosted by the Aboriginal Sport and Wellness Council of Ontario (ASWCO). It will be held in Toronto on the shared traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and with the support of the Métis Nation of Ontario.

Ontario150

Lead: Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport

In 2017, Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary. As a founding province, Ontario is joining the celebration with new funding, events and programs.

Upcoming:

  • Throughout 2017, events and programs will take place across the province that showcase Ontario's diverse communities. Everyone is encouraged to get involved and celebrate.
    • A key component of the Ontario150 program is a series of one-time grants that municipalities, non-profit organizations and Indigenous communities applied for across the province. These investments are intended to engage Ontarians of all ages and lay the groundwork for strong economic, social and cultural legacies for the province's next 150 years.
    • Provincially supported events will take place across Ontario in 2017. They include a year-long celebration in Ottawa; the Toronto Global Forum; the Invictus Games; the touring SESQUI media experience; and the Lieutenant Governor's Visionaries Prize, which includes a series of events focused on youth and our future.