Hon. T. Christensen: "I know that the opposition leader wants to characterize everything as cuts. The budget for the Ministry of Children and Family Development today is 30 percent higher than it was in 2000-2001."
Hansard, April 16, 2008

The Minister of Children and Family Development bragged about a 30% increase in his budget over 8 years when answering questions from Carole James about the Representative for Children and Youth's report: "From Loss to Learning". Some reporters and columnists have naively repeated Christensen's 30% figure without checking to see that the correct figure is 19%, or an average 2.2% per year compounded annually over 8 years - less than inflation plus population growth.

The budget for the Ministry of Children and Families in 2000-2001 was $1.501 billion; now called the Ministry of Children and Family Development, in 2008-09 its budget is $1.987 billion. Dividing those figures gives an increase of 35.7%, but an important reorganization occurred in 2004-05. The budget for child care (what many call day care) was shifted from the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services to the Ministry of Children and Family Development and lumped in with early childhood development and supports to children with special needs. The last year it appeared as a separate line item in what was then called the ministry of people the Campbell government doesn't like, it was $184.28 million. In 2000-2001 the budget for child care was part of the Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security, what most people call welfare, where its line item budget was $165.5 million. When that is added to the 2000-2001 budget for the Ministry of Children and Families so as to compare apples to apples, the growth in Christensen's ministry drops from 35% over 8 years to just 19%.

It is important that Minister Christensen try to maintain some credibility as he struggles out of the hole that the Campbell government dug during its first term. That's when they treated the Ministry just like every other ministry that got 25% in cuts. To be fair, then Minister Gordon Hogg did a good job resisting the cuts, aided by advocates throughout the province, so that by 2003-2004 the Ministry's budget was "only" 11% less than it was in 2001-2002; nevertheless, those cuts and endless reorganizations created so much confusion and bitterness that Christensen would be well advised not to engage in revisionist history, and anyone who quotes his numbers should check the facts.