As signalled earlier this week, the board of directors of Brant Family and Children’s Services resigned en masse Friday over provincial funding cuts, and the agency’s executive director has been ousted.Andrew Koster, who has spent more than 40 years doing child protection work and beloved by staff, is on leave and has been replaced by a supervisor chosen by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, which funds the province’s 50 children’s aid societies.As executive director, Koster has for several years been vocal about funding changes and, more recently, about an increase in work due to an opioid crisis in the area the Brantford-based agency serves.Children and youth minister Todd Smith has appointed Bernadette Gallagher, executive director of the Children’s Aid Society of Haldimand and Norfolk, to supervise Brant FACS “during this period of transition,” Smith said in a statement.“My top priority is to ensure the ministry is taking the necessary steps to avoid any disruption of our services for the children and youth who could have been impacted by the decision of the board,” Smith said.“Thanks to the dedicated staff at Brant Family and Children’s Services with the support of Dr. Gallagher, we are confident children, youth and families will continue to receive the support they need as usual.”Read more:‘We have a system in crisis,’ says Brant children’s aid society after cuts lead to 26 workers being laid offMass resignation at Brantford children’s aid society to protest underfundingSmith said he did not agree with the board’s “assessment” of the level of financial support provided by the ministry, and was “disappointed by the board’s approach, as I believe there was more we could have done together to resolve this situation.”Brant has been operating with a deficit of about $2 million, and was the subject of a ministr ...
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