Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington created a bit of a stir in Victoria last week after a question she posed to the Liberal government went through three cabinet ministers without being answered.
During question period last Thursday, Huntington asked Attorney General Susan Anton why no one is being held responsible for issues highlighted by B.C.'s representative for children and youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, in two recent reports on the aboriginal child welfare system.
In her reports, Turpel- Lafond said a collapse of governance led to a situation where at-risk children and youth on First Nation reserves are effectively "invisible" to the province's social welfare system. She criticized the government, saying the $66 million spent over 12 years on the aboriginal child welfare system brought little improvement.
In a report last month, Turpel-Lafond blamed the suicide of a 14-year-old girl on the failure of a "dysfunctional child welfare system."
"Tragic suicides of 14-year-old children are the only legacy this government has to show for its total failure to govern," Huntington said in the legislature.
"How many times must the child welfare system continue to fail these children? How many interactions with government care workers, contractors, nurses, doctors, police and band council social workers does a young person require before the system moves to protect that child?" she asked. "I'd ask the attorney general to talk to us about accountability."
The question was passed from Anton to Social Development Minister Don McRae, who stood to then direct the query to Children's Minister Stephanie Cadieux, who was not there.
The question was taken on notice and, as yet, Huntington does not have an answer.
She maintains the attorney general really should answer her question because under the Child, Family and Community Service Act it is illegal to fail to report that a child needs protection.
"My question to the attorney general is: Who is accountable here? Who is she going to hold accountable here? It's a legal obligation, who's accountable in these situations?" Huntington said she felt compelled to address the issue in the legislature because no other MLAs had brought it up.
"It's the government's fault for not ensuring that money going into the system is working," she said. "The government has to respond to what is now a decade-and-a-half and $66 million of an absolute failure to protect children." Huntington said she will continue to press the issue and is considering using her question period time next week to ask the question again.
"Someone in government has to acknowledge the issue."
