A bipartisan committee of MLAs issued some tough talk about the need for austerity and restraint on Wednesday, but wound up approving budget increases for most of B.C.’s independent officers.
But it is still holding off on approving a budget increase so the representative for children and youth can devote a special team to raise the number of permanent adoptions.
The offices of the auditor general, ombudsperson, conflict of interest commissioner, Elections B.C., information and privacy commissioner, police complaints commissioner, and representative for children and youth will see varying budget increases if the committee’s report is approved by the legislature.
The individual officers will all get raises, as well. Their salaries are tied by law to the salary of the chief judge of the provincial court. Judges’ pay was the subject of a long-running court case that ended last fall when B.C.’s attempt to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied. So a recommendation from a panel in 2010 for increases will take effect. That means the chief judge will earn $282,600 by April, and the independent officers will make the same.
Most of their budget submissions included staff salary increases as well, to reflect public-service raises.
The committee report Wednesday said MLAs “affirmed the importance of fiscal discipline in the context of a volatile economic landscape.” But they also heard from the independent officers about increased responsibilities and other cost pressures.
One of the highlights was their decision to hold off approving representative for children and youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s request for $1.2 million to work on cutting the backlog of children awaiting adoption.
“The committee agreed to continue consideration of the representative’s proposal related to the adoption-advocacy project,” the report said.
After highlighting the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s failure to reach its target of 300 adoption placements, Turpel-Lafond started work on a crash project to hire about eight workers in her own office to complement the efforts of the ministry. The special team was to spend three years working on improving the placement rate and cutting the backlog of more than 1,000 children in care awaiting placements.
Staff from the representative’s office appeared before the committee again this week to advocate for that project. The deputy minister from ministry also supported the idea. But approval of the additional money is still pending.
The office submitted a budget plan that included an additional $1.2 million for the adoption push, which would have raised her annual budget to $9.8 million for the next three years.
Instead, the committee is recommending $8.8 million a year for the next three years. It also wants progress reports on how the office manages files. Although the office submitted a stand-pat budget last year, the committee said the representative’s budget has increased 17 per cent over the past five years.
Turpel-Lafond said she was pleased with the operational budget lift that was approved, but disappointed that no decision was made on the adoption project. It’s the second time she has asked for funding, after a special request last year, but MLAs haven’t committed to it. She said the committee reference is confusing, and the ministry could miss its placement target again this year as a result.
Elsewhere, there was a hint of some development on the issue of legal indemnification for witnesses in the ombudsperson’s investigation of the health-researcher firings that is underway. Several past and present senior officials are expected to testify, and there’s a question of whether they need lawyers, and who would cover that cost.
The committee asked ombuds-person Jay Chalke last September to report on that issue. Wednesday’s report said he had pursued the matter with the Justice Ministry and “was quite hopeful that he would be able to have a positive discussion” with the committee in coming weeks.
Another high-profile watchdog, information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham, got what she asked for from the committee.
MLAs are recommending a 5.8 per cent budget increase, to $5.9 million a year, rising to $6.1 million over three years. It will cover operational cost increases and extra work from legislative changes and higher volume.
