Aurora Banner, October 27, 2016

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IN OUR MIDST

OUR VIEW

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF KIDS GROWING UP IN POVERTY PAGE A3

PROTECTING STUDENTS ACT IS LONG OVERDUE PAGE A8

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COMMUNITY

York CAS has ‘critical’ shortage of foster families BY LISA QUEEN

lqueen@yrmg.com

T

o the four dozen young boys cared for in their elegant and welcoming Aurora foster home for the past 14 years, they are Miss Maple and Mr. Fred. Removed from their homes by York Region’s Children’s Aid Society because of abuse, neglect, conflict or financial hardship, they have found a safe haven, often for years, in the loving home of Maple Porter-Balaz and her husband Fred Balaz. Both immigrants, Porter-Balaz and Balaz wanted to give back to Canada. “What better way to do so than fostering. Taking children in your home, looking after them, showing them a different way of life, loving them, caring for them, I just thought that would be just wonderful,” said PorterBalaz, adding she and her husband chose to take in boys, usually between the ages of five and 12. “Sometimes, kids are coming from very, very difficult situations and they come into your home and some of them may act up or whatever but after a little while, they settle down because they can see that you care about them. There is love everywhere and you look after them the best way you can and they also become part of the family. They come into care and you want to give them a better life and the kids appreciate it, they really do.” Balaz said being a foster parent is one of

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the fulfilling things he’s done in his life. York’s CAS has a serious shortage of foster parents. “I would certainly call it critical. We have just over 300 children in care and a third of those children in care are living outside the region because we don’t have homes in the region,” said supervisor of residential development, Karen Wright. “I think the other piece in terms of our crisis is we are at capacity, such that if we had a call today where a sibling group had to be placed, we can’t keep them together. We’re splitting them up...We have no infant homes in York Region and no teen homes.” York has 111 foster homes, down from about 130 homes 10 years ago, despite the ballooning population. “Also, I think for us, what we feel is, we almost have this generation of foster parents who are aging out and are beginning to plan their own retirement from fostering,” Wright said. While some children placed outside the region land in foster homes in the Greater

Steve Somerville/Metroland

Maple Porter-Balaz and husband Fred Balaz of Aurora have been caring for foster children for 14 years. York Region Children’s Aid Society has a critical shortage of foster families.

See page A2.

COUNCIL

Aurora council confident it can correct $185K deficit by end of year BY TERESA LATCHFORD

A

Mike Barrett/Metroland

Aurora council is working to eliminate and operating budget shortfall of $185,200 before the start of 2017.

tlatchford@yrmg.com

urora is confident it can correct its deficit by the end of the year. According to the town’s interim operating budget forecast, it will be facing a deficit of $185,200, or 0.3 per cent of the total 2016 operating budget. The same report states town staff continue to minimize the deficit before 2017 begins and if needed, it will be offset by reducing the money earmarked for reserves. “We are seeing a number of budgets underfunded, not overspent, meaning we are spending considerably more to do what we need to do but the funding hasn’t kept up over time,” said Aurora financial services director Dan Elliott. “With a $58 million budget, missing the mark by a net of $185,000 is pretty astounding.” Since any deficit or surplus will carry over into the next year’s budget, which would increase or decrease the tax rate, it is ideal to enter every year with a balanced budget. “The word deficit concerns all of us,” Councillor Michael Thompson said. “If I was a resident I would want to know not only what we have done to deal with it but what we will continue to do.”

CAO Doug Nadorozny said it has been an active conversation with staff and that the town has delayed hiring, made small adjustments to service levels such as having staff take on building cleaning duties, scheduling changes to reduce part-time hours and have found some park maintenance savings. Thompson requested another report before the end of the year. Mayor Geoff Dawe pointed out a surplus of $815,700 from the town’s utility operations and the revenue brought in by parking tickets that could be used to bring the budget shortcoming to zero. “Taking funding from one to the other in the accounting books is easy to do,” Elliott replied. “Is it illegal? No. Is it against fundamental principles? I believe it is.” With the province pushing for full cost recovery for utilities, municipalities are working very hard to keep rate funded assets and reserves separate from those that are tax funded, he added. Nadorozny would be very confident in stating the town will hit the zero mark if the next two months happen without any variances on what has been projected. However, heading into the winter, he isn’t willing to make any promises.

SOCIAL ISSUES

We are not a Halloween costume: First Nations HEIDI RIEDNER

hriedner@yrmg.com

The time has come to stop dressing up as an “Indian” for Halloween, according to First Nations people, who say they are not a costume. On the heels of the recent debate over whether the Cleveland Indians name and Chief Wahoo mascot is racist or merely anachronistic, First Nations people added the hashtag #not a costume to the #not your mascot hashtag generated after long-time Toronto Blue Jays’ broadcaster Jerry Howarth explained why he has refused to use First Nations nicknames since the 1992 World Series, when Toronto defeated Atlanta. While civil liberties groups raise the issue of censorship and the fine line of juggling cultural sensitivity with freedom of expression, First Nations advocates say cos-

First Nations people are using the hashtag #notacostume to protest Halloween costumes they say perpetuate harmful stereotypes. tumes like “Reservation Royalty” for adults or the sanitized Disney version of Pocahontas as princess for children perpetuate harmful stereotypes and stigmas regardless if they are chosen with good intentions or not. You may think your $49.99

“costume” pays homage or shows respect, but Lakehead’s Chair of Truth and Reconciliation and former Chippewas of Georgina Island resident Cynthia WesleyEsquimaux says the exact opposite is true. “It is a matter of respect, wheth-

THE PLACE FOR

er it is an Indian, Gypsy or Spanish ‘princess’ costume. If someone wants to come to a Pow Wow, dressed in a beautiful shawl, no one is going to say you can’t or you are not welcome to share in our culture. But on Halloween, it is mostly done for humour and parody, and

that lacks respect, is offensive and does not acknowledge this country’s history in the larger context of truth and reconciliation.” They are symbols, ultimately, of the oppression and violence that occurred on this land to make indigenous people go away, says Suzanne Smoke of Biindigen Healing and Arts. A member of the Alderville First Nation and an advocate for missing and murdered Aboriginal women, Smoke says Canadians have been trained and taught to ignore and devalue the worth of indigenous peoples and women are doubly oppressed. “With the Truth and Reconciliation commission and the MMIW report, I think it is time Canadians re-evaluate their treatment of First

See page A2.

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