Previous complaints against Ontario day-care where child died went unaddressed

The government of Ontario will launch massive investigation into itself and how it has handled complaints surrounding day-care facilities in the province, but this sweeping act of housekeeping is coming too little, too late.

Earlier this week, a two-year-old child in an unlicenced day-care centre operating out of a home north of Toronto.

York Regional Police are investigating the death, but will wait for the results of an autopsy before deciding whether to lay charges.

The circumstances behind the death are not currently clear, and it is uncertain how many children were being cared for at the time — although the number has been reported above 20.

What is clear is that the death has caught the province's Ministry of Health flat-footed.

The ministry announced late Thursday night that the now-closed facility was the subject of several recent complaints.

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Education Minister Liz Sandals released a statement shortly before midnight on Thursday, which confirmed that some of those complaints were not addressed properly.

"I am devastated to learn of the death of a toddler this week in an unlicensed child care setting. This is a tragedy that no parent should have to experience and my heart goes out to the loved ones of this child," Sandals said in the statement.

"I learned earlier today that the ministry did not respond to all previous complaints made against this unlicensed provider, as is the normal policy of the ministry."

Sandals said she has ordered a detailed examination of the child's death as well as how the ministry responds to complaints.

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Following the death, ministry officials launched a review of the facility and learned that a total of three complaints had been filed against the provider between October and December of 2012. Only once did the ministry conduct a site inspection.

"This was a clear non-compliance with ministry policy," a press briefing reads. "It has been a longstanding policy to conduct an initial site visit within 5 business days for all complaints regarding unlicensed child care providers who may be caring for more than five children under the age of 10."

As a result, the ministry says is will conduct reviews on every complaint it has received in the past year, to ensure appropriate follow-up has occurred.

The ministry is also conducting an investigation into the child's death to determine whether to lay charges under the Day Nurseries Act — which could result in possible jail time.

Numerous complaints were filed against an unlicenced day-care and not reviewed properly, and now a child is dead. It’s nice that the ministry is investigating itself over the matter, but just maybe it shouldn’t end there. An outside authority might be better suited to find out what went wrong.

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