Tuesday July 18, 2023 | VICTORIA, BC
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Reader comments may be sent to news@islandsocialtrends.com.
It’s been a few weeks now since British Columbians became aware of the tragic news of a child’s death that occurred in a foster care home. The boy’s sister also survived the abuse at the hands of two foster parents, with serious injury. The foster parents were given 10-year jail sentences. Both the parents and the two children were Indigenous.
In the wake of this, the Minister of Children and Family Development (MCFD) has been politically pressured to resign. The BC Greens went so far as to say both the Minister and Deputy Minister Allison Bond (who has been deputy minister since July 2017 under the NDP government) should resign, and that the whole ministry needs an overhaul.
Minister of Children and Family Development Mitzi Dean has stood firm in the progress being made in various aspects of the ministry’s functions and policies.
A few weeks ago it was made known that the workers involved in the case (who didn’t check on the endangered children for some period of time, during the pandemic) had been fired from their jobs.
The deeper work of the ministry continues, much of it laborious organizational and administrative work to change the basic structure of the system and to engage more with key stakeholders.
It’s a deep subject to explore why a society needs a child welfare system in the first place. What goes wrong in families, the economy and societal structures overall that sees some children fall into care of the state?
Minister and DM profiles:
Dean has built her career in the social work sector, providing leadership to transform programs for disadvantaged youth and families in the Greater Victoria west shore for 10 years. That’s what caught the attention of then BC NDP Leader John Horgan, who encouraged Dean to run in the 2017 provincial election. Her first post was a Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity; after the 2020 provincial election she was appointed as the Minister of Children and Family Development. Dean has been MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin since 2017, and in the past year has been rallying a ‘west shore collaboration’ with mayors of several municipalities (including Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, and View Royal) — all of which saw new mayors elected in October 2022.
Bond has been a BC provincial government staffer since 1990, moving into the role of assistant deputy minister (ADM) in various ministries starting 1999. In 2006 she lead a large-scale public consultation on sustaining the BC public health system. In 2013, Bond was appointed to her sixth ADM position with responsibility for the Service Delivery Division of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. In July 2017, she was appointed as the MFCD deputy minister.
Media inquiry – what we asked:
Island Social Trends circled back to this issue, asking MCFD for an update about any transformational work that might be underway since this story broke.
We also asked if Minister Dean is continuing to work through the summer on the various components of her ministry that could be better managed or improved.
We asked if MCFD has met with Indigenous leaders and/or any of the opposition leaders who have expressed concerns.
Island Social Trends also asked for specific dates or the time period in which MCFD did its own investigation into the tragic case (separate from the criminal case that was happening).
Ministry statement at July 18:
This is the response we received today July 18, 2023 from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, in full:
“The ministry is committed to continuing to make system changes to transform the child welfare system.”
“As soon as the ministry was alerted to the conditions of the home, immediate steps were taken to make sure any children that had been previously connected with that home were in a safe place. Extra measures have also been put in place at various levels throughout the ministry to make sure:
- Every child and youth who were the responsibility of the involved team received in-person visits to assess their safety and wellbeing.
- Policies and procedures that should have been followed in this circumstance are being followed with every child and youth who is in the care of government.
- All children and youth in care receive regular, private, in-person visits, so that frontline workers can establish a good relationship and determine exactly how the children and youth feel about the home they’re in.”
“Discussions about the broader child welfare system are ongoing between the First Nations Leadership Council and the Government of B.C. MCFD is committed to continuing to work with First Nations leadership and Indigenous partners to uphold their inherent jurisdiction in providing their own child and family services.”
Minister’s mandate letter:
When BC’s new premier, David Eby, announced his cabinet in December 2022, his mandate letter to Mitzi Dean as Minister of Children and Family Development included a statement that “children are precious to all British Columbians, and few issues are as profoundly important as ensuring all children are protected and supported”. The premier’s letter stated: “We want all children and youth to live in safe, healthy, and nurturing families, and to be strongly connected to their culture.”
Premier Eby said that MCFD “has led historic work with First Nations, recognizing that the best support for Indigenous children comes from Indigenous communities.” He emphasized that Dean’s work was “to continue to develop and support Indigenous jurisdiction to ensure Indigenous responses to Indigenous children in crisis will be a vital priority.”
In recent weeks, Eby said he has full confidence in Dean’s work to lead MCFD.
Our editorial published on July 3 argues that it would be poor governance (and an undue bend to political pressure) to remove a minister who has achieved progress and continues to do so.
Reader comments:
We are interested in knowing what people across BC are thinking about this issue.
- Should a minister or deputy minister be fired when things go wrong by staff in the field?
- Are Indigenous families being well served by the foster care system?
- Overall, is the child welfare system addressing the needs of modern society?
Comments can be published anonymously (but please identify yourself in the email, for validity). Comments may be sent to news@islandsocialtrends.com.
===== RELATED:
Swapping out the one who’s trying to fix things would be bad politics (July 3, 2023)
Minister Dean: These children were failed at every level (June 26, 2023)
Mitzi Dean MLA out meeting west shore constituents (April 28, 2023)
Jan 2023: Westshore MLA Mitzi Dean reflects on the year ahead (January 16, 2023)
Mitzi Dean pleased about constituency accomplishments during the pandemic (February 20, 2022)