SIMCOE COUNTY - A flawed provincial funding model and higher-than-average growth has left the Simcoe Children's Aid Society with a looming $5-million deficit.

As the local CAS slid into financial trouble, senior management salaries at the cash-strapped agency kept pace and, in one case, outstripped inflation and growth.

According to Ministry of Finance disclosure, executive director Mary Ballantyne was paid $118,848 in 2003. In 2008 - the last year for which the disclosure is available - her salary rose to $151,209.09. The increase translates to 27 per cent over five years.

The agency has also added staff to the Sunshine List - the list of those in the public sector earning $100,000-plus. In 2006, four more senior staff hit the magic number, and in last year's disclosure (for 2008 salaries), another pair was added.

Ballantyne attributed the increases to growth.

"It's a function of growth and the cost of living does go up," she said. "If you compare the CAS executive team to others on the Sunshine List, we're not the highest paid by any stretch."

The Advance compared the local executive director's earnings to those at the executive level at other Children's Aids. Simcoe County does pay better than Brant County (which includes Brantford), Guelph-Wellington and Halton Region.

In Guelph-Wellington - an area that has an urban city like Barrie surrounded by smaller, rural communities - the CAS paid its executive director $136,633 in 2008. That CAS, too, faces a shortfall, of $2 million.

Local salaries are higher than in the Halton Region CAS. The CAS that covers Oakville paid its executive director $139,876 in 2008.

Children's Aids that pay their staff more include Waterloo Region at $160,560, Hamilton at $166,019, Peel Region at $166,969, and Toronto at $172,130. Figures are for salaries only and do not include other taxable benefits.

"We do negotiate collective agreements every two or three years as any organization does. There are cost of living agreements, but our salary levels and the compensation package is very much in keeping with the province and the size of our agency. There are no bonuses," added Ballantyne.

In telling Simcoe County Council how the agency got into such a financial crisis, Ballantyne explained the agency's provincial funding is based on data that's two years old, as well as a lower-than-average boarding rate. She said the local CAS is paid $73 per day, as compared to the provincial average of $79 per day and the GTA average of $103 per day.

The local CAS had 399 children in its care at the end of 2008-2009, as compared to

Guelph-Wellington's 300 children. Locally, CAS responds to twice as many calls - over 6,000 - that same year, as compared to Guelph-Wellington's 3,000.

The Ontario government doesn't deny there's a funding issue with Children's Aid Societies, and has set up a commission to review the funding model. This year, however, it refused to bail out agencies running in the red.

In its 2006-2007 annual report, Simcoe County CAS reported it ended the year in the black, but the following year, it fell into a deficit. Despite that, the next year's salaries rose by $1.3 million and the deficit grew to $454,425.