Revolving door continues to spin as B.C. children's ministry gets new leader: Former Surrey school board chair Mary Polak is 11th person at the helm in 13 years
Canwest News Service
By Lindsay Kines
June 13, 2009

The revolving door leading into the B.C. children's ministry spun again this week as Mary Polak became the 11th person in 13 years to take its helm.

…She is the third minister in the portfolio in as many years.

In 2006, former judge Ted Hughes called for an end to the constant turnover in the ministry when he reviewed the province's child welfare system. That upheaval, he said, had taken a toll on staff morale and on the ministry's ability to set direction, frame goals and make progress. "The revolving door has got to stop," he said at the time.

…. Polak chaired the Surrey school board, which spent more than $1 million fighting to keep three books about same-sex families from being used as instructional materials in kindergarten and Grade 1….

Christy Clark, a former children's minister in Campbell's government, also found Polak's appointment curious. "She's pretty far on the conservative side of things, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out," said Clark, now a talk-show host … She added that Polak's battle against same-sex books in Surrey would seem to contradict the ministry's philosophy.

"Typically, the Ministry of Children and Families would be encouraging that kind of openness on issues," she said. "You're dealing with very vulnerable kids. They adopt kids to gay and lesbian families. So it will be curious to see how she deals with that."

Polak, however, dismissed concerns about her personal views. "I've got a long record of public service and I'm proud for people to judge me on that."

Polak said she asked for the children's portfolio because of her interest in children's issues. …

Bob Plecas, a former deputy children's minister in the NDP government of Glen Clark in the 1990s, said Polak's views are unlikely to affect the ministry, since deputy minister Lesley du Toit appears to be running the show. "The most important thing for Mary Polak is how much influence does she have with the minister of finance and the premier, because one of the issues is resources," he said.

Plecas said that while turnover at the top hurts, the bigger problem is that the ministry keeps changing direction and philosophy.

"It's been the government flip-flopping on a centralized or de-centralized model, plus flip-flopping on whether the model should be family focused or child-focused," he said.