The government is different. The watchdog is different. The message is sadly the same: Young people in government care are being put at risk.
B.C.’s representative for children and youth, Bernard Richard, replaced Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. The NDP has replaced the B.C. Liberals.
In a letter that reads like something Turpel-Lafond might have written, Richard told Minister of Children and Family Development Katrine Conroy that he has “grave concerns” about the contracted agencies that provide homes for children and youth who are in care.
At one such home, 18 young people had to be moved because of a report that a gang-affiliated staff member took the kids on drug drops, smoked marijuana with them and offered them cocaine. The ministry discovered that only 10 of 33 staff and caregivers had passed criminal record checks and other screening measures.
When British Columbians can’t even do volunteer work without criminal record checks, how is it possible that staff at group homes can work full time without being cleared? These are young people who need the best care and support.
More than 800 children and youth are in contracted homes, largely because B.C. is perennially short of foster parents. The ministry and the agencies face a difficult task in finding qualified people to care for those young people.
Difficult though it is, we must not put those children at risk in the places that are supposed to look after them.
