‘Alarming loopholes’ found in unlicensed daycares

An Ontario ombudsman investigation into unlicensed daycares has found lax rules that were “barely being enforced” in a system with legal loopholes.

The investigation was launched following the death of a two-year-old girl at a home daycare in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto last year.

Ombudsman Andre Marin says Eva Ravikovich was one of four children in the Greater Toronto Area to die in an unlicensed daycare in a seven-month period, but her death signalled “significant problems” when government officials weren’t able to say how many complaints had been made about her facility.

Law rarely enforced

He says his investigation found that the province “rarely and inconsistently enforces the few lax rules it has” for unlicensed daycares, with staff shying away from unannounced inspections.

Marin says his team found “alarming loopholes” that have allowed illegal daycares to operate “under the guise of private schools and so-called summer ‘camps.”’

He is not recommending that all daycares be licensed, but is urging the Ministry of Education to consider a centralized registry and tougher standards for the unlicensed sector.

Unlicensed daycare operators can’t care for more than five unrelated children under the age of 10, not counting their own kids. But Marin said 29 children and 14 dogs were allegedly found amid “unsanitary and dangerous conditions” at Ravikovich’s daycare.

Toronto critical injury lawyer Patrick Brown, partner with McLeish Orlando LLP, represents Eva Ravikovich’s parents. The family has launched a $3.5 million lawsuit against the Ontario Ministry of Education and the owners and operators of the Vaughan daycare facility where their daughter died.

Brown describes the ombudsman’s report as “one of the most scathing indictments against a government ministry” he has ever read.

“Not only did it fail Eva, it failed all the other children who were harmed or died in these facilities. It tells of a broken and failed system that let Eva and her parents completely – and tragically – down,” he says.

‘Unreasonable and wrong’

Brown points to the ombudsman’s report that states “the ministry’s efforts are too little, too late … its delayed and incomplete response to complaints and concerns relating to unlicensed child care providers is unreasonable and wrong under the Ombudsman Act.”

He notes how the report states, in connection with Eva, that “the ministry completely dropped the ball … and left unscrupulous individuals free to provide illegal child care and placed scores of children at risk in an overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe environment. Unfortunately the ministry’s abysmal response to complaints about the Yellowood Circle child care was not an isolated incident”

Brown says the ombudsman’s report marks the first time that the government, including the Ministry of Education, has released any information to Eva’s family about her death, despite the pending civil suit against them. The ministry is seeking to have the claim summarily dismissed without producing any documents or having to proceed to examinations, he says.

“Based on the information disclosed in this report, that motion is completely devoid of merit and is a delay tactic,” he says.

Brown says the government has indicated the act does not impose any obligation to investigate these complaints and they “owed no duty” to Eva or her parents.

“This position flies smack in the face of this report,” he says. “No one can ever bring Eva back. But the family applauds the ombudsman for having the courage not to pull any punches and to deal with this straight on. His 113 recommendations, if acted upon, will go a long way in protecting the children of Ontario.”

‘Very troubled’

Brown reviewed portions of the report with Eva’s mother, Ekaterina Evtropova, who is “shocked and very troubled” by the content of the report and the lack of response by the ministry to the five complaints, including Children’s Aid about this daycare. She says that “had the ministry shut this place down or shared that information with her, Eva would not have been there.”

Both parents went on to provide a statement, “We hope that this report may bring us one step closer towards finding answers to what happened to our little girl. We pray the report will help in ensuring steps are taken so future children are protected from this type of harm.”

113 recommendations

The government estimates that 95 of Marin’s 113 recommendations are already being addressed. While Marin praised the government’s co-operation with his investigation, he called their response “too little, too late.”

Many of the problems he found date back years but were compounded in 2012 when responsibility for the daycare system was moved from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services to the Ministry of Education.

“More than two years later, in the wake of at least four deaths, serious issues have still not been addressed,” Marin said in a statement. “At a certain point, you have to ask, what could be more pressing, more urgent, than protecting children?”

The New Democrats had called on Marin to launch the investigation.

Education officials admitted that they failed to follow up on two of three complaints lodged against Ravikovich’s Vaughan daycare.

Two Education Ministry employees were suspended after it was discovered that a number of complaints about unlicensed daycares went unanswered in 2012.