Are there any more letters falsely promising grants?

Second family received pledge of $1,000 from Campbell

Another B.C. family is disappointed and searching for answers after learning that their adopted child is not eligible for a $1,000 education grant that was promised to them by former Premier Gordon Campbell.

Last week, The Province reported on the Mortons, a family of three from the Shuswap area who recently learned that their adopted boy would not be receiving the $1,000 contribution to the Children’s Education Fund that Campbell had pledged to them in a 2008 letter.

As it turned out, the letter was sent to them in “error,” Leanne Morton told The Province, as her son was actually not eligible for the money due to his 2006 birthdate (he was adopted in 2007). This despite the letter clearly stating that eligibility was based on a birthdate or adoption date of January 2007 onward.

It now appears that the Mortons weren’t the only ones to mistakenly receive this letter.

Christine Goodley, a Fort St. John mother, said she also received a letter from Campbell in late 2008 promising the money under the same fund, which has since been transitioned into the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant. (This program offers a $1,200 contribution to an RESP account).

“At the time, there wasn’t a great deal of information there,” Goodley said of the letter. “It stated in the letter that every child born or adopted from Jan. 1, 2007 qualified. From the criteria in the letter I received, it appeared to apply to my son.

“So we just tucked it away, thinking that we will put it in with our other financial information and pull it out at the time, when we needed it.”

Goodley said she first adopted her son in 2005 while she was a single parent. He was six at the time. Goodley later married and her husband underwent the adoption process in 2007. The Campbell letter arrived in 2008 with her son’s new birth certificate, she said.

It was upon reading the Mortons’ story that Goodley said she decided to contact the government and ask about the status of the $1,000 she thought had been set aside for her son.

Like the Mortons, she learned that her son did not qualify for the original money, or the new training and education savings grant. The eligibility for the new program is for any child born on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

The Ministry of Education has said that “every effort was made” to ensure that the letters were sent only to parents deemed eligible for the original fund. It remains unknown how many letters were mistakenly sent out.

A ministry spokesperson said Monday that the government is not aware of other cases, save for the two reported on by The Province.

Did you receive a similar letter promising $1,000 for your adopted child? If so, contact the Province at tabtips@theprovince.com