Dear Member of Provincial Parliament: RE: Stop the privatization of welfare for 16 to 24 year olds. Children's Aid Societies are non-government, private, unaccountable organizations that should not be given more funding to provide welfare for all youth 16 to 24. I disapprove of this move to privatize welfare for youth because CAS is non governmental, private, and unaccountable to the public for how it operates including the expenditure of its 1.5 billion dollar annual budget. All three parties voted unanimously for Bill 88 at second reading September 19, 2013. However, since the bill was sent to committee Irwin Elman the provincial Children's Advocate advises that "the government does not support the bill" and he also said that, "id do not support the bill in its present form, and he said, "I hope it dies. (statement by Elman to Pamela Palmer and Jane Scharf on October 15, 2013). We want public consultation of the Bill 88 move to privatize welfare for 16 to 24 year olds and we believe there will be very little support for the CAS to take over youth welfare entirely because this organization no longer has credibility with the Ontario Citizen. The Private Member Rod Jackson who introduced Bill 88 does not even mention in his address to the legislature that it will be CAS who will get the exclusive contract for the privatized youth welfare system. In fact he refrains from mentioning the CAS at all in his address but instead uses another term with is synonymous but not well known i.e. the Child Welfare System (CAS). Jackson claims that CAS has programs that keep youth off the street and out of jail but nothing could be further from the truth. CAS wards and former wards are vastly overrepresented in the street and jail population some studies showing up to 80% from the CAS system even though they make up less than 1% of the youth population in Ontario. Jackson also claims there are no programs for youth other than the CAS programs which is also blatantly untrue. In every major city in Ontario there are extensive programs for youth that are not in CAS. These programs have much better outcomes even though they operate on a shoestring budget unlike the huge budgets accorded to the CAS from the public purse. (You can find Jackson's address to the Legislature at second reading in the Hansards September 19, 2013). I want the responsibility of welfare for youth 16 to 24 years of age to remain with Government of Ontario because government agencies are responsible and accountable to the public for how they deliver their funding. The welfare programs together with community programs such as shelters, transitional housing, employment support, etc., offer youth support for income, housing, disability as well as emotional support and advocacy. These programs are very effective in keeping kids off the streets and out of jails but they could increase positive outcomes with some additional funding. I want to see child welfare services delivered by the Provincial Government so there would be automatic ombudsman oversight. The existing Child and Family Services Act already allows the government to take over CAS under section 22. (1). I want child protection services under the criminal code of Canada as was intended in the Constitution Act of Canada section 91 (27).