Troubled Youth - Billing of unused services and a questionable notion of equity

While placed at a rehabilitation center, a youth was temporarily housed with family friends. Despite this, his parents were required to continue making financial contributions to the youth center for his accommodation.

The decision to house the youth with friends was agreed on by the youth center, the parents, and the youth, and proved to be clinically sound and beneficial for the youth’s development. The youth’s parents were unable to receive a proportional reduction in their financial contribution for the period of the youth’s stay with the family in question.

The mother’s complaint concerned:

• the financial contribution claimed for her child’s stay at a rehabilitation center for a period of time when the youth was not housed there.

The Québec Ombudsman’s investigation revealed that:

The circumstances under which the financial contribution for placement of minors can be proportionally reduced are set out in section 352 of the application regulation, which reads as follows:

• the monthly contribution payable pursuant to this Subdivision is reduced proportionally for each day during the month a child spends with his father and mother, and for each day on which a child, because of his running away or being hospitalized, is not sheltered. For the purposes of this section, the word “day” means a period of at least 7 consecutive hours during the same day;
• placing the citizen’s son with family friends is thus not a circumstance under which the Regulation respecting the application provides for a proportional reduction;
• the youth center was obliged to save the youth’s place at the rehabilitation center in case problems arose during his placement with family friends. This preventative measure was the reason for which the financial contribution was claimed;
• the youth center applied the Regulation respecting the application correctly and in accordance with the provisions in force.

In light of the foregoing, The Québec Ombudsman made no recommendations.

The Québec Ombudsman is nonetheless concerned by the limitations currently imposed by the application regulation as it pertains to cases such as this one where the placement of a minor at the home of friends was clinically motivated and in the interest and within the rights of the minor, as defined by the Youth Protection Act.

The Québec Ombudsman is currently conducting a systemic review of equity issues stemming from this kind of situation to identify corrective measures that can be taken.