Statement from MCFD critic Amelia Boultbee (MLA Penticton-Summerland) on the one-year anniversary of the Don’t Look Away report
PENTICTON, BC: “Yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of the Don’t Look Away report – a searing indictment of systemic failure within B.C.’s child welfare system – the NDP government released a self-congratulatory update claiming ‘progress.’ But this update from the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) is grossly misleading.”
“B.C. continues to record among the highest rates of missing children in North America, most of whom are Indigenous or in government care. Children continue to die. Frontline workers are burning out. And families are still caught in a cycle of crisis and abandonment.”
“The government’s update claims that 65% of recommendations from Don’t Look Away and other RCY reports have been ‘acted on.’ According to documents tabled at the last meeting of the select standing committee of children and youth, where reports from the RCY were tabled (including their annual reports), only 11 recommendations have been completed by the government.”
“The NDP claims to have introduced ‘tools for oversight and tracking that make sure child or youth visits occur at least once every 90 days.’ This admission, far from reassuring, is damning. A quarterly visit is a dangerously low bar for high-risk youth in government care. There is no explanation as to what percentage of children are actually being visited on time; what consequences exist for missed visits; or whether these oversight tools are automated, independently monitored, or enforced at the ministry level. The lack of clarity opens the door to continued neglect and missed warning signs.”
“None of the government’s talking points address the most glaring reality: children are still missing and dying under NDP oversight. The update contains no public count of children in care who are currently unaccounted for; mortality data for children and youth in care over the past 12 months; third-party assessment of current child safety and well-being outcomes; or status of key performance indicators such as school attendance, mental health support access, or reunification rates.”
“Without confronting these real metrics, the NDP’s update is an exercise in bureaucratic misdirection.”
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