B.C. wasted $66 million on failed aboriginal child welfare reforms

B.C.'s representative for children and youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond accuses
the government and aboriginal organizations of blowing money on consultants,
pointless research projects and endless meetings that go nowhere and deliver
no tangible results.

It is a “colossal failure of public policy” that not one child benefited from the provincial government spending $66 million over 12 years in failed efforts to improve the Aboriginal child welfare system, B.C.’s youth advocate says.

A scathing new report from the Representative for Children and Youth admonishes the government and some native groups for money wasted on plans to change how social services are delivered to vulnerable children.

Money was flushed on fruitless meetings and flawed initiatives at a time when there were not enough foster homes or support services.

“This story may read more like fiction than truth, but the numbers speak for themselves,” Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said in her report, When Talk Trumped Service, released Wednesday.

“More than $66 million has been spent without any functional public policy framework, no meaningful financial or performance accountability, and without any actual children receiving additional services because of these expenditures.”  (more...)

B.C. wasted $66 million on failed aboriginal child welfare reforms