I've no doubt that former Minister Gordon Hogg championed funding for his Ministry at the Cabinet table. However, he also wasted tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars from his cash-strapped budget on the botched restructuring program led by Doug Walls. Why? So that someone else would be left holding the bag for the impact of his cuts when they were finally implemented--much like the school districts took most of the heat for Christy Clark's underfunding of public education. Hogg ignored clear, repeated and credible warnings going back a lot further than last summer--at least 18 months--that he was on course for disaster with a restructuring program that added tremendously to the impact of meeting his fiscal targets. That it was ill-conceived and poorly-managed seemed irrelevant, he couldn't move fast enough to offload his vulnerable clients so that by the time the screaming started, they'd be someone else's problem. Minister Christy Clark has already made it clear she intends to continue along the same path. The only difference I see this time is that no one will be confused about the motives. Dawn Steele Parent, Vancouver

Ever notice Christy Clark's eyes when she is asked a tough question by the media? They glaze over, her mouth starts motoring with inane rantings (and never DIRECTLY answering the question). She does this while backing away from the cameras. Watch for this 'performance' increase with this new tougher portfolio. This Government and its ministers are truly pathetic.

I absolutely agree, Burgess. Watching Christy Clark repeatedly dodge pointed questions from Vaughn Palmer on Voice of BC last week was infuriating. I'm sure we can expect more of the same in her new portfolio. As an aside, has anyone else noticed that whenever a politician uses the word "clearly" that anything but clarity follows? It has to be one of the most over used and maligned words in politics.

If Christy Clark does to the Ministry of Children and Families what she did to Education, I and many other front-line workers in the field will soon be on another front line...the unemployment line. It's a frightening scenario for anyone who cares what happens to people with mental disabilities and children at risk.

The writer incorrectly states: "read: adults with mental disabilities. The ministry is also responsible for adults with PHYSICAL disabilities, so why didn't the writer simply state "adults with disabilities"? Also, the media, and therefore the public, seem to know very little about this ministry's responsibility for children and adults with disabilities/special needs... the ministry is a lot more than about child protection. For starters, it is also responsible for programs to address youth crime, and the provincial adoption system. I know of two instances, a single woman and a married couple, who went through all the approvals for adopting a child (not a baby > there are thousands of children in foster care waiting to be adopted) and because of cutbacks the people working in the ministry's adoption area (in Victoria) do not have time to work with each of them to adopt a child. So how is that saving money (if saving money is the only important thing here)?

Christy Clark was the opposition critic for the ministry when Lois Boone was minister. If the media could locate some of her public comments at that time, it may make for some interesting juxapositioning when she continues with the human and financial cost-cutting...

I don't know why Christie Clark was chosen as Hogg's replacement other than the bulldog temperment she employs to further bully this beleaguered ministry to submission. Pushing forward is the worst possible choice. I have yet to receive an explanation as to what "individualized funding" is from our government. Why? Because they don't know either. The whole "readiness" of the new Authority is like the Emperor's new clothes - to be trotted out and "oohed and ahhhed" by sychophants while the the new Emperess, Ms. Clark, strutts her stuff pretending that the complete outfit is not only there but beautiful to behold. At least in the story the Emperor does not lose his job for such stunning stupidity. Ms. Clark would do well to remember she is, after all, just an elected official. and its

Vancouver is now going to be going for a major restructuring in services.More upheaval with the continuing justification of better services.Meanwhile people on income assistance are being submitted to a slow poison.People are squeezed back and humiliated with impossible barriers, such as having to reapply for child tax credits after their children have been in care. When they receive the backlog they are then cut off assistance, often with the lecture of what poor money managers they are. MCFD is going to be content with risk assessment model which tolerates so many casualties as lamentable but tolerable to the bureaucracy and by implication the larger society.Workers who have been providing competent and worthwhile services will have to either apply for new jobs with different agencies and lose their hard earned seniority and benefits and start over, because some lame brained bureaucrats have come up with a hocus pocus service delivery model which is based on poor science and ego, a pathetic lab experiment.This incredible indifference to what suffering people are going through creates a tolerance to leaving children in unsafe and high risk situations and less services by a skilled and knowledgeable work force increases the risk.Ignoring the systemic relationship between social assistance and child poverty is driving many families to despair and to hunger.Like those third world countries that have high child prostitution rates, high crime rates, violence, the slow poison that this government is administering will eventualy lead us to some of the same outcomes.But they will be doing it with that fake and insincere smile which Christy Clark and her ambitious personal plans and her incredible spins on the truth have done for the Education Ministry.Of course we also have the sociopath Stan Hagen as the other bookend, replacing Murray Cruel.Just when we thought it could not get any worse, we now have to put up with a prima donna and "does it put breakfast on the table for rich folks" Hagen.

hey, what happened to my comment

Any one who is involved with this government is by implication supporting the reduction to services for children and a climate of tolerance forchildren not having the safety they deserve, and for families having the support they need.

The Ministry of Children and Families has been a disaster for years, even before the days of the discovery of the deaths of 50 children in the care of the Ministry back in 1997. Decision makers have been afraid to deal with this department lest they appear to be "against children." Ultimately, the only people who benefitted from this approach were bureaucrats. Children lost out. With the appointment of a hard-nosed Christy Clark as Minister, this could be the best, and last opportunity to fix the ministry, top to bottom. If she can't, children in BC will continue to lose out.

A true champion would have walked from this cabinet table a long time ago --- a true champion for children and families would not have agreed to be the Minister responsible for an agenda and ideology that proclaimed such severe, hurtful budget cuts disguised as restructuring. True champions put people at the front and centre of government policy and budgets. This government's decisions do not reflect a collective community caring and responsiblity. They are only the champions of "I am all reight Jack, and as for you who are not ...... TOUGH.

Hogwash, Dianne. You never solve a problem by walking away from it. Moreover, I refuse to believe that the only way to solve problems is to throw money at them. The Ministry of Child and Family Development is a bloated one, where dollars don't filter down to the people they are supposed to help. I know it sounds trite, but isn't it time someone thought about the children? For sure, there are many quality public servants - and they will be able to do their jobs better, and help more people with a repaired system.

I wonder if Christy Clarke had a child, or family member with a disability, be it mental or physical if that would soften her approach somewhat and help her to take a real stance. One of long term vison for the individual and family and community. Becasue ultimately all three are tied together. Being a parent who has a just 13 year old with numerous intellectual/mental disabilities and looking down the road 5-10years, I'm appreciative of the individual funding that is available and which I have just become aware of. When will there be a politician who we have elected, or the government has appointed that will think about children and their families and also the long term vision for the child, family and community down the road. I'm tired of the axe mentality in the present, although it may be necessary for a season to get back on track or to get some things cleaned up in MCF.

Dave, I always find it interesting when people make wild, unsupported claims about the ineffeciencies of systems. When you say that the Ministry of Children and Family Development is a bloated one, what evidence do you have to support such a claim? There is a great deal of evidence that supports an opposite view. When hundreds of millions of dollars are slashed from the budget of the Ministry of Children and Families, it is difficult to believe that more dollars are somehow going to magically begin to filter down to the people they are supposed to help. As someone, who has worked for years in the community social services field for years, I can attest to the fact that the $170 million that is scheduled to be cut from this Ministry is going to have a profound impact upon the care that our children receive. None of those impacts translate into improved service where workers will be empowered to perform better at their jobs, nor will it result in helping more people, as you claim.

Dave, I always find it interesting when people make wild, unsupported claims about the ineffeciencies of systems. When you say that the Ministry of Children and Family Development is a bloated one, what evidence do you have to support such a claim? There is a great deal of evidence that supports an opposite view. When hundreds of millions of dollars are slashed from the budget of the Ministry of Children and Families, it is difficult to believe that more dollars are somehow going to magically begin to filter down to the people they are supposed to help. As someone, who has worked for years in the community social services field for years, I can attest to the fact that the $170 million that is scheduled to be cut from this Ministry is going to have a profound impact upon the care that our children receive. None of those impacts translate into improved service where workers will be empowered to perform better at their jobs, nor will it result in helping more people, as you claim.

Eric, you also assume that the only way to solve a problem is by throwing money at it. At $1.8 billion dollars, the MCF budget is the 4th largest in government, and is one of the largest Children's services budgets of anywhere in the country. Compared to Alberta, BC spends twice as much per person on Children's services, so I don't think money is the problem. The system is the problem. I could go on and on about problems in MCF, but the article above does a pretty good job (and there certainly are a lot of documented issues out in the public) of it. We need people to be innovative here. Not just because cash is a finite resource, but also because we need to find better ways to deliver services. Does that mean job loss? I don't know...but I do know that there are a lot of MCF employees who do not deliver services and are not front line.

The measure of a good government is how it treats it's least able. This bunch is so obsessed with balancing budgets that it's soul has rotted.

Well Dave, I do know that you repeat the lie and the refrain that the Liberals are throwing money at social services to solve a problem. This is the same tired apology to excuse service cuts to those who need them so that those who do not can feel good about it..Are you sure you are Dave and not STan Hagen.The system has bee under attack for some time now with every bureycrat having a kick at the can qith the new flavour of the day or new neoliberal push to see what happens to perfectly good services.. The only people that I think are getting this money are all thwe consultants who are advising how to deliver services like a business would, that is the business vision they think Gord has.Ask the family advancement workers who have done incredible jobs in the innercity schools who have just received their layoff notices. Even your hero Gordon Campbell is exasperated that the people who are getting money thrown their way such as fish farms and corporations are not appreciative.Please sir,can I have some more is now the battle cry of the so called competive and free market community. By the way, where did you get your stats about Alberta or about children in care whu died in 1997.You are not making this up , are you?

This department is an easy target for the present government. They can round up lots of fellow travellers to parrot their mantra that the folks on assistance are parasites. What does that make Mr. Walls? (the premier has gone to ground on this one.) Now there is a bloodsucker making $550 a day on the backs of those dependent on this department. And that isn't even counting the $400,000 that magically 'disappeared' in one of the numbered companies where he is a 'partner'. (Let see $30 million to Ford Motors, $2 million CIBC.) This is a man that says he didn't know kiting was a crime? What business course did he take? Now we have Cristy Clark staying the course and what for? To stick it to the poor so party hacks and wannabees can soak up a lot of extra dollars for their own pockets with Clark appointed liberals, that's what. Integrity is not a word that this government even has a clue about. By the way Dave just how do you justify the word 'bloated'? Prove it without using liberal propaganda. Bloated would be better applied to the premier's office which is the most expensive in the history of this Province. Justify that 'bloated' office Dave.

Dave, I too would like to know where you got your statistics for Alberta. The Stats Canada site contains nothing to support your claims. Furthermore, you lament that BC has one of the largest Children's Services budgets in Canada. Considering that, in terms of population, BC is the third largest province in Canada, I would expect it to have one of the largest children's services budgets. BC's population is nearly one million greater than Alberta, the next closest province in terms of population. Your claim that BC spends twice as much per person in Children's services as Alberta, is unsubstantiated and ridiculous. Where are you getting your statistics? It wouldn't happen to be the Fraser Institute?

Eric and Steve...I got the stats from the 2003 budgets for both Alberta and BC (from their websites) and then compared it to population to get the per capita numbers, since BC's numbers would obviously bigger because there are a million more people in BC than Alberta. So the math works out as follows - BC: $1.8 billion for 4 million people = $450 per person. Alberta: $780 million for 3 million = $260 per person. Never thought to ask the Fraser institute for the info - I did the math myself. I don't bring up these numbers to lament the spending in BC, or laud the lack of spending in Alberta - just to point out that other jursidictions are managing the same issues for less money. As for the 50 or so children dying in the provinces care - Gordon Campbell made hay of that while in opposition, and in response Glen Clark created the Ministry of Children and Families and appointed Penny Priddy Minister. The issue was all over the papers at the time. Very unfortunate situation. No - I am not Stan Hagen. He is way older than me. As for reducing the staff in the "bloated" premier's office - I agree with you that they are probably not getting value for money at this point.

Aside from all this talk about statistics and spending per person -- as someone who regularly interacts with these "statistics" every day, I can tell you that there are people who are falling thru the cracks. There will be more people - families and children - who are not captured by the statistics who will be falling thru the cracks in the future. There is an insidious erosion of all of the support services that are provided to families and children that has not been captured in its entirety by the mainstream media discussions about provincial government cuts. The CLS changes are but one part of the whole horrifying picture. For instance, the individualized funding is the brainchild of a bunch of people who, quite obviously, can advocate for themselves and who probably already have money, power and privilege in our society. They can take that money and buy services for themselves- no problem for them. Some, I'm sure, can put it with all the money they already have and get great services for their children. People who are immigrants, who do not speak English, who have undiagnosed mental illnesses, mental handicaps, learning disabilities, addiction problems, poverty issues, who themselves are raising children with and without handicaps are going to be at a great disadvantage under the new CLS system. Many of those people cannot be expected to have the skills or abilities to handle the individualized funding. This CLS change is one of many frightening changes where society's most vulnerable are going to face an increasingly miserable future. If we look at the cuts to the supported child care program (a program being kicked out of the government in the next couple of months), with the result that some vulnerable families mentioned above have been denied child care subsidy, combined with the cuts to child protection (where there is pressure to close files as soon as possible thus abandoning those vulnerable families without providing long-term support), cuts that have been made already to welfare payments (where many undiagnosed individuals or parents with either mental illness or mental handicaps or other hidden barriers such as learning disabilities, etc, etc could be getting disability payments but aren't because they don't understand,or don't believe that they have a problem), combined with cuts to virtually all other supportive community programs and services, then we are looking at lots of suffering human beings who are not visible to the media or the general public. Their children will not be visible in the community, their hunger and deprivation will go unnoticed, and their disadvantaged start in life will be unnoticed until a crisis happens. Then, a protection file might be opened and then shut again as soon as the crisis is over. This kind of abandonment of vulnerable families will just pave the way for further misery, drug addiction and other dysfunctional behaviours in those disadvantaged children who will grow up to experience (some of them) the cycle of misery with their children. All of this - combined with the low-paying mcjobs out there that parents are being forced to take-- is and will continue to eat away at our society, further eroding the dignity, health and well-being of an increasing number of people who are turning into an underclass to be used and abused by greedy, selfish people who are running this province and country right now.

Read the article (and weep) in the Vancouver Sun about how monies from this department ended up in the pocket of Mr.Walls. And where is Gordon Campbell in all this? Hiding of course. Maybe the Tax Department will be able to deal with this scofflaw as the campbell liberals don't seem to. Now we have another fox in charge of the chicken coop.

I think the Walls incident screams loud and clear about dollars disappearing before they get to the front lines. As well, given that one Minister has resigned over the affair, the bar is set very high for what needs to happen to solve the issue, and what the public will demand if nothing positive happens. Regardless of where the public is left or right on issues in general, I would bet we are all united on this one.

I see there are a few bean counters in the above crowd ..quoting the Liberal mantra word for word. Meantime..THOSE THAT REALLY MATTER...the human beings affected by this, their needs won't be met here. In this instance..it CANNOT be just all about money and cutbacks. The humans involved need to be considered. Its like the Liberals not doing stats on infant mortality or not reporting them as prior BC gov'ts did. You can't sweep it under the rug and hope these people..these situations will "magically" go away or stop happening. Its unrealistic. Meanwhile as some have noted above..Campbell's staff keeps growing..where is all this money coming from in this so-called "havenot" province. Instead of adding that extra cabinet minister recently..perhaps that money..the yearly salary equivalent could have gone for the hot lunch programs for the children in poverty in Vancouver. Instead we see gross amounts being paid ..to all these new "upper-management" CEO types. Makes me wonder what they do each day to justify why they are taking even more money out of our system that could have been used to save a child from an abusive home..or whatever need is out there. I don't go to church..but I DO BELIEVE that "we are our brother's keeper" This insanity has to stop..these people need help..and if its the monetary kind that is going to provide quality of life..THEN SO BE IT.