Former children's commissioner Cynthia Morton, former child, youth and family advocate Joyce Preston and former ombudsman Dulcie McCallum have gone public with their concerns over child protection after Premier Campbell failed to respond to their letter of June 16, 2004.

In their letter the three, who were respected independent statutory officers, said: "how will government report publicly on maintaining, if not enhancing, the health and safety to children while the budget is reduced for services to children and families? We have examined the service outcomes for the Ministry and are unable to see any transparent measures that address these matters."

The former officers began their letter by referencing two recent deaths of children and raising their concern that there will be no independent review of those deaths. The government's Child and Youth Officer, who replaced the former independent officers, has made it clear that she has no authority to conduct investigations unless specifically requested to do so by the Attorney General. The government's position is that an investigation by a coroner is sufficient. Experts in child protection disagree.

The experts' letter was raised in the Legislature during question period on March 8th. When asked the simple question "will government meet with the authors of the letter", the response was a rant about how wonderful it is that the number of children in care has been reduced. That might be a good thing if there was confidence that children at risk are not being abused, and that the Ministry is providing adequate support for families. There is no evidence that the reduction of the number of children in care was driven by anything other than budget cuts. Children should not have to pay for those cuts with their lives, and the public should not accept assurances from government in the absence of credible independent authorities who can investigate deaths and the role of the Ministry.