Double Standards on Child Protection

December 9 Update: The government appears to have felt the heat in reaction to the partisan nature of its child protection website. It has been amended and the reference to Adrian Dix has been removed.

December 5, 2005

Double Standards on Child Protection

The Campbell government responded to the criticism it's taken for creating chaos in the Ministry of Children and Family Development and for cutting services to children, not by changing its ways, but by expanding its communication efforts. A new logo marks the spot on the Ministry's website where one can click to see the government's "Update on Child Protection".

Consider the following statements from 1997 and 2005:

I want to give the minister my commitment to do what we can do within this House and on this side of the House to make sure that children are put first, be it through legislation, budget amendment, resource allocation -- whatever action we together decide must be taken to put children first. I ask the minister: will she commit to take us up on the offer to work together immediately to determine the resources that are required, so that we do not have the kinds of tragedies taking place in the province of British Columbia which we have seen take place time and time again over the last number of years?
Gordon Campbell, Hansard, May 1, 1997

It is unfortunate the opposition critic continues to use fear mongering - of our parents and children - for political purposes.
Government's Child Protection Website, December 1, 2005

While in opposition, Gordon Campbell and his caucus attacked the former government over child protection. They promised to put children first. In government they slashed the budget for the Ministry for Children and Family Development so deeply that the government's own consultants wrote that it was not possible to proceed with regionalization at the same time that budgets were being cut, causing them to repeatedly reschedule their regionalization plan. Campbell's criticism, while in opposition, influenced the former government in the creation of the independent Child and Youth Advocate and the Children's Commission. Both were eliminated when Campbell formed government, possibly to silence the whistle blowers as the budget was being cut.

The distinction between the government, the government caucus and the legislature has been blurred by the Campbell government. The time-honoured tradition is that government publications may put the government in a good light but they must not attack the Opposition; to that extent they must be non-partisan. The Campbell government crossed that line in publishing a report card on New Era promises, not on the BC Liberal website, but on the government website. The Child Protection Website took another big step across that line by directly attacking the opposition critic, Adrian Dix. Dix has been praised in the media for the outstanding job he has done in holding the government accountable. The use of a government website to call his criticisms "fear mongering" should remind everyone of how the Campbell caucus conducted themselves when in opposition and how the they used taxpayer resources to mail out partisan leaflets, a feat documented and criticized by the Auditor General. It appears that they've learned nothing.

The government website's attack on Dix is in response to his discovery and report to the public that the number of investigations into alleged child abuse or neglect that are not completed by timelines established by the ministry are increasing. The Ministry's response amounts to saying that its standard is irrelevant: "The 30-day standard is there to guide ministry work - but protection of children is our top priority - not paperwork." The Ministry has a long way to go to convince the public of that.