KIDS’ WATCHDOG TAKES A FEW PARTING SHOTS
Turpel-Lafond ‘s final report calls for government to do more
When child protection watchdog Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond appeared before a B.C. legislature committee Monday morning, she opened on a note of regret that this would be her final appearance.
“It’s a bit bittersweet,” the child and youth representative advised members of the all-party oversight committee for her office. “I’ve appeared, I believe, about 45 times before this committee over the past decade, and probably 12 to 13 times before other committees. I was aiming for 60. I think I got to about 58, so if you want to call me back, maybe I could make it.”
No, the B.C. Liberals on the committee did not rush to book her for an encore performance.
For all the perfunctory tributes from the government side, there was no disguising that when the representative comes to the end of her second five-year term at the end of November, the B.C. Liberals will have had more than enough of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.
Characteristically, the watchdog herself underscored the breach in a final report that circulated online as she did her farewell turn before the committee.
“Government must be accountable for its actions on this file and show an urgent interest in improving the services it offers to children, youth and their families,” she wrote by way of taking yet another swipe at Minister for Children and Family Development Stephanie Cadieux.
“Despite a mandate to meet with the representative a minimum of four times per year, the minister has refused to meet with me at all during the past 12 months. This government must work on its ability to own up to its shortcomings and to address them. B.C.’s children deserve that much.”
Granted. But a passing reference Monday to herself being “somewhat a control freak type of person” is one of the few occasions that I can recall where Turpel-Lafond acknowledged that her own unrelenting style might have exacerbated the relationship.
A more balanced assessment comes from Ted Hughes, the former deputy minister and judge who created the office of the child and youth representative and mentored Turpel-Lafond through her first term and well into the second.
Lately he’s expressed concerns about an approach in her reports that sometimes suggests the government can do no right.
“The job was carried out in a confrontational manner sometimes,” the ever judicious Hughes told Justine Hunter of the Globe and Mail last week. “But could the job be done without that? It’s an open question.”
Still, Hughes would be the last to discount the many accomplishments of Turpel-Lafond’s 10 years in office.
“Unquestionably, she has proved the need for, and the worth of, the office,” Hughes told Lindsay Kines of the Victoria Times Colonist. “She’s shone the spotlight on deficiencies in the system, many of which have been remedied by subsequent government action.”
One case in point among many discussed during Monday’s proceedings involved the high school completion rate for children and youth in government care.
When the representative and the province’s chief medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall first flagged the problem seven years ago, the completion rate was 20 per cent. Today, as she proudly advised the committee Monday, it has doubled to 40 per cent.
She’s also helped persuade 13 colleges and universities to waive tuition for children and youth who’ve been in care, a singular contribution to helping break the pattern of welfare dependency.
“She’s now creating a lasting legacy where for many of those children, they’re breaking the cycle for their families,” as New Democratic Party MLA Carole James observed this week.
James is a member of the oversight committee for the child and youth representative. She is also a member of a second committee that is busy vetting applications for Turpel-Lafond’s successor. She and the chair of the latter committee, B.C. Liberal MLA Don McRae, spoke to reporters Monday to clear up any confusion about the status of the office in the weeks ahead.
Turpel-Lafond has expressed regret that the selection committee, which was appointed last spring, has yet to agree on a successor. At one point Monday she told reporters she is “functus,” using the legal term for an official whose mandate has already expired.
But as both the New Democrats and the B.C. Liberals emphasized Monday, her fiveyear term does not actually come to an end until Nov. 27.
She remains the representative until that date unless she resigns and she gave no indication that she intends to do so. Rather, she will be using up some vacation time, leaving the office in the capable hands of her staff.
Meanwhile, the three B.C. Liberals and two New Democrats on the selection committee are aiming to make a final recommendation on a replacement in the next few weeks. But the verdict must be unanimous, which helps explain why it has taken so long.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the legislature for final approval, when the house next sits in February. In the interim, once Nov. 27 rolls around, the committee on children and youth will select an acting representative to serve until a permanent replacement is named.
The interim appointment needs only the approval of a simple majority of the 10-member committee. But it would set the right tone for a new era, if they could all agree on the choice of the acting representative as well.
The job was carried out in a confrontational manner sometimes. But could the job be done without that? It’s an open question.