Gordon Hogg's chaotic Ministry of pain and suffering has reached a new low in its use of jargon to hide failure. In a news release put out late in the day on October 1st, as if timed to minimize coverage, Hogg released the consultant's report that took the latest look at his Ministry. The release claims that "The Ministry of Children and Family Development will transform its services and stabilize its budget prior to transferring service delivery to governance authorities". The report and other documents are available at http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/transformation/updates.htm.

The news release makes it clear that plans to implement 10 regional authorities for child welfare are on hold as a desperate attempt is made to salvage something from the mess. The release says that "The current chairs from 10 regional planning committees - five aboriginal and five nonaboriginal - will become one interim authority for children and family development services. The planning committees that support these chairs will continue to be our key, consultative link to communities, but their work will now refocus on planning the transformation of ministry services."

A letter from the Deputy Minister to Hogg dated September 26, 2003, says "Firstly, accomplishing these tasks will require the ministry and its service partners to find significant savings to reach budget targets. This will not be easy, but is essential to achieve budget stability and sustainability as well as facilitating success in implementing community-based governance."

The words "budget stability" appear to be code language that mean "stop the cuts!" The 25 page consultant's report says "It is important that the budget for children, families and adults with developmental disabilities becomes stable. Budgets transferred to new Authorities need to be workable budgets. Moving to new governance is not an exercise in down-loading. To the extent possible, this stability should be reached prior to a change in governance taking place for the simple reason that budget stability will facilitate success in implementing new governance."

The consultant's report makes it clear that the Ministry will not be ready to implement its change to regional control until well after the next election. The report warns that "Given … the state of readiness as we now understand it, it will be September of 2005 before new permanent Authorities for Children and Family Development are likely to be ready. Even then, timing will depend on the meeting of readiness criteria (service transformation, budget stability, operational readiness, service delivery plan and trust)."

The Campbell government's handling of the Ministry of Children and Family Development must be ranked as one of its greatest failures, and biggest flip flops. The New Era Document promised to "Stop the endless bureaucratic restructuring that has drained resources from children and family services." The highlight box that contains that promise on page 26 of Campbell's campaign book may set a record for broken promises. That same box contains the promise to "Stop the expansion of gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families." The performance of the Campbell government with respect to children and families is the opposite of what they promised.