Nothing has changed for B.C. kids, budget critics say
Jonathan Fowlie and Lori Culbert
Vancouver Sun
February 21, 2008

The introduction of Tuesday's green budget marked two years since Finance Minister Carole Taylor delivered a themed budget on another pressing social issue: British Columbia's children.

On Wednesday, critics came out saying that despite the spotlight shone on children in that budget -- and the millions committed to child welfare -- nothing has changed in the past two years for B.C.'s most vulnerable children.

"If they're as successful with their environmental budget as they were with their child welfare budget then we are all going to die of asphyxiation in the next 15 years," Nicholas Simons, the New Democratic Party critic for children and families, said Wednesday.

His comments came as Vancouver's Pivot Legal Society released a 125-page report arguing B.C.'s child protection system remains "crisis driven" and says nothing has changed in recent years.

"For the most part, parents' concerns today mirror the issues raised by parents who participated in community panels evaluating the child protection system 15 years ago," says the report, 'Broken Promises: Parents Speak about B.C.'s Child Welfare System.'

Currently, 9,271 children are in foster care in B.C., more than half of them aboriginal, the report said. Pivot's report is based on interviews with 32 parents (most of them mothers) who live in the Downtown Eastside, between December 2006 and February 2007. The researchers also collected sworn statements from another 12 parents with children in the system.

The report argues children are rarely apprehended because of abuse, but instead because of "a parent's struggle with poverty, addiction, mental health issues or family violence."

It says 65 per cent of the women with children in the system who were interviewed said they had also been wards of the province. The report goes on to say improvements won't be made until the government addresses systemic factors, such as a lack of social supports for single mothers and the legacy of residential schools. Children and Family Development Minister Tom Christensen said Wednesday that he thinks the Pivot report focuses too heavily on some of the worst cases.

"It appears, at least, they interviewed parents that had a particular challenge with the ministry rather than a sample of families that have had interaction with the ministry," he said.

The report also questions whether, considering inflation, the increases to the ministry's budget will even restore funding cut in 2002, shortly after the Liberals took power….