Relax, everyone.
B.C. is not going to lose its unique watchdog for children in government care anytime soon, if ever.
A number of people and certain media outlets last week seized on what was a rather minor part of career civil servant Bob Plecas' report on the ministry of children and family development.
Plecas (who helped create the ministry in the first place as part of the NDP government in the 1990s) painted an alarming picture of a ministry that, while not in "shambles" as he points out, is nevertheless beset with internal problems and a worrisome corporate culture that borders on the paranoid.
He also suggested that a recommendation (long forgotten, it seems) by former civil servant Ted Hughes that the position of the Representative for Children and Youth evolve to a position for advocacy, rather than one of scrutiny of the ministry, be considered at some point down the road.
But Plecas said that could only happen once the ministry greatly improved its performance, and he rightly concluded that has yet to happen, so the position is remaining and will continue to be ably filled by the person who has been in that position for years now: Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond.
However, Plecas also put forth the novel argument that the children's rep very existence -- because it inevitably leads to heavy criticism of the ministry, which ignites blanket media coverage and political attacks on it -- may be one reason for the ministry's low morale and inability to attract and retain child protection workers.
Predictably, this was all seen in some quarters as some sort of hatchet job on Turpel-Lafond herself, which is nonsense. Still, a number of First Nations leaders lined up behind Turpel-Lafond, suggesting she was under some kind of unprecedented attack that had to be thwarted immediately.
Unfortunately, all this drama masked the most important parts of Plecas' report, namely where he makes the case for a significant increase in funding for the ministry, and at least an 11 per cent raise in pay for front-line child protection workers.
That kind of pay hike for senior protection workers would match the Canadian average. Better training programs for them are also needed.
Plecas also made some recommendations about improving communications and reducing bureaucratic barriers to improving performance, which are always good things to implement.
Surely, a call to improve services for children in care, and to take steps to see that the people responsible for doing one of the most important and difficult jobs in all of government would merit more attention.
It doesn't matter that Turpel-Lafond has been calling for things largely along the same lines for some time now. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that the relationship between her and the ministry has become strained to the point of appearing almost broken.
That's not to diminish her work and performance, but it is likely inevitable that a watchdog and the party under that watch are going to stop listening to each other at some point. That appears to have happened, unfortunately (her second term is up next November, and there is widespread speculation that she may be asked to assume a major role in the federal government's public inquiry into missing or murdered aboriginal women).
As Turpel-Lafond said in response to the Plecas report, it doesn't really matter in the end whose recommendation for more resources ultimately prevails. Just "get it done" was her answer.
Hopefully, the government listens to one of them and act accordingly: more resources to ensure more than 7,000 children and youth in care get the services they deserve.
Given that it was the one that brought Plecas into this conversation in the first place, the government will find it difficult to ignore his findings and recommendations.
We'll know whether Plecas' was successful in his arguments when the next budget is introduced in February. If the budget for MCFD goes up about $50 million (rather than the measly $6 million that is forecast in the government's three-year fiscal plan), the answer will be yes.
And that should get a resounding thumbs-up from the children's watchdog, who should still be in her job folks.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
