British Columbia's Ministry of Children and Family Development does not keep accurate count of the number of children in government care entering or leaving the province, Minister Stephanie Cadieux confirmed today.

Nor do the province's social workers visit out-of-province placements to ensure they're safe every time children in ministry care move away.

But because of a Representative for Children and Youth report released earlier today, Cadieux says the ministry is working on changing that.

The report examines government accountability for the placement of a B.C. toddler with her maternal grandfather, a man with substance abuse issues and an extensive criminal record, in Saskatchewan in 2007. Eighteen months later, RCMP removed the child from the home, and doctors determined she was malnourished and suffered physical abuse.

In a teleconference with B.C. reporters this afternoon, Cadieux said she accepts the two recommendations outlined in "Out of Sight: How One Aboriginal Child's Best Interests Were Lost Between Two Provinces."

The first recommendation is a Provincial Director of Child Welfare review of out-of-province placement protocols and policies, and subsequent annual reporting by ministry on all transfers of children in government care in and out of the province. This includes enabling ministry monitoring of children when they are outside of B.C. jurisdiction.

The second recommendation calls on the director to encourage provincial counterparts to push the federal government for a review of the Provincial/Territorial Protocol on Children and Families Moving Between Provinces and Territories.

According to Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, these guidelines for inter-provincial child welfare currently do not include the consideration of a child's aboriginal background when making placement arrangements.

Cadieux confirmed the province's social workers do not always accompany children out of the province or check up on them once they leave.

"We don't have authority to just walk into another jurisdiction. So we need to work with the other jurisdictions for permission to go in and have that happen. Again, work will continue at the table of the directors of child welfare to work on strengthening the protocol," she told reporters this afternoon.

Just two per cent of the children in care in the province leave or enter B.C. each year. Cadieux says it would be impossible to predict how much it would cost the ministry to monitor those children, but indicated it's a priority.

A number of changes have already taken place since 2008. This includes the passing of the Family Law Act, which replaced the Family Relations Act in 2013. The new law requires criminal background checks for caregivers to be included in custody proceedings. MCFD also changed their practices for background checks of care providers, conducting them every three years as opposed to every five years.*

But in a conversation with Turpel-Lafond shortly after the report release this morning, she told The Tyee the ministry hasn't made changes preventing a situation like this from happening again.

"One of the reasons why we did the report was because we felt it was still timely. For instance, the government of British Columbia cannot tell us how many children are moved in and out of the province under these protocols," she said.

"So we don't know how many are moved then, and we don't know how many are moved today."

Turpel-Lafond gave the ministry a copy of her report "months ago" and she expected more movement on the recommendations by this point, particularly on regional "leads" appointed to monitor children in care who leave the province.

"On some of them, like appointing leads under protocol, that should have been done," said Turpel-Lafond.

"So if someone from Manitoba needed to get the (regional) lead in B.C., they wouldn't know who to reach."

Now entering her second year as Children and Family Development minister, Cadieux has received eight reports from Turpel-Lafond's office, many of which came with recommendations for change. Cadieux told The Tyee her office regularly meets with Turpel-Lafond's office to provide updates on the implementation process.

But Turpel-Lafond says it hasn't been enough.

"They've got to make change and they've got to be able to demonstrate what is it that they're going to do," Turpel-Lafond said of the ministry. "They've certainly accepted recommendations from a number of my reports, but we have to see some progress."

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues for The Tyee Solutions Society. Follow her on Twitter.

*Changed September 18, 2:50. Previously incorrectly stated the Family Law Act came into affect in 2010, and that increasing criminal record checks was part of the legislation.