At a group home in eastern Ontario, the owner allegedly called First Nations kids from northern Ontario his “bread and butter.”

Behind the doors of other privately run group homes, former workers say that staff and management referred to Indigenous youth sent there for help as the company’s “cash cows,” “money-makers,” or even “paycheques.”

A year-long Global News investigation has revealed how some private group homes allegedly prey on the vulnerability of Indigenous youth from remote First Nations in order to generate profit.

Indigenous youths are moved hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from their communities to these group homes, based in southern Ontario — separating them from family, friends, and culture.