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DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY(Hansard)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2002 Afternoon Sitting Volume 9, Number 5 ... (Full Proceedings available on the Legislature Website) Hon. G. Collins: I call second reading of Bill 65. COMMUNITY SERVICES Hon. G. Hogg: The Community Services Interim Authorities Act presents a new vision of services to children and families in British Columbia. The vision is one of healthy children and responsive families living in safe, caring and inclusive communities. This bill launches a period of participation and partnership between the ministry and communities. New regional and community-based family services authorities are currently being planned and defined across this province. As a province we are moving closer to our goal of improving services and outcomes for aboriginal children and families. The introduction of this legislation marks an important step in meeting two new-era commitments: to stop the endless bureaucratic restructuring that has drained resources from children and family services and to focus on early intervention of at-risk children and measures aimed at preventing crisis situations before they arise. The process leading to the introduction of this bill has been one of the most extensive in the development of social policy projects in Canadian history. It involved 12 months of public consultation and participation in building community governance. Hundreds are people are actively involved in this process. They include ministry clients, individuals and families. They include foster parents, other service providers, academic leaders and members of local government. They include the leaders of all of British Columbia's aboriginal organizations, as well as many others from bands, tribal councils and service agencies. They include all of the senior people in the ministry and many of the most experienced and highly trained staff within the ministry. Together, British Columbians are dramatically changing the delivery of services to children, youth, families and people with developmental disabilities. I want to thank each and every one of these for the time they have taken, and are still taking, and the energy they have put in to chart a different course for British Columbia to serve those in our neighbourhoods and our communities who are most vulnerable. The vision that is emerging is of strong, resilient, wise and caring communities. Three features have been a part of the process in contributing to the success of this consultation process: first, that of respectful relationships between government and the people it employs and the people it serves; second, the courage to innovate and face the personal and professional risks that innovation brings and the necessary uncertainty that occurs with change; third, a recognition by the people of British Columbia that the combined collaborative process brings greater wisdom — wisdom to plan well, to compromise and to accept and correct the errors that are bound to occur in such a large and complex task. [1745] While we identify and develop the processes for change, we must at the same time safeguard the quality of services to tens of thousands of vulnerable children, families and adults that the ministry serves. A budget reduction target of 23 percent must accompany this change over the period of our three-year service plan. A year ago many of those involved might have had some skepticism and, indeed, declared this process impossible. Yet we have persevered, and people have been committed to it and involved in it, and we are currently right on track. To build the trust, we first concentrated on building a relationship. Last October, when government embarked on its core review, the ministry made that process fully public. The Ministry of Children and Family Development core services review was conducted during the fall and winter of 2001 through direct meetings and consultations with families, stakeholders and staff. We also used our website to publish discussion materials. In keeping with the ministry's first strategic shift towards openness, transparency and accountability, all 450 submissions which were received were posted on the website in their entirety. That signalled to those people involved — clients, employees, contractors, advocates, community partners, researchers and the general public — that we took their opinions seriously. These people had a lot to say to government, and perhaps more importantly, they had a lot to say to each other and a lot to learn from each other. There emerged from the core review a clear and strong consensus that the systems in place to care for vulnerable children, families and youth as well as adults with developmental disabilities were rigid, unresponsive and overly bureaucratic, and that neither the systems in place nor the budgets to support them were sustainable for the long term. Some of the criticisms that emerged included the fact that we had the largest single child welfare delivery system in Canada, and it was becoming less and less responsive. Many social workers trained to support families and protect children were spending up to 70 percent of their time in front of their computer screens filling out reports, not doing the work they trained to do and wanted to do. The population of children in care in the ministry had grown by over 60 percent from 1994 to 2001. Over 40 percent of the children are of aboriginal origin, and that population continues to increase. Families whose adult children have developmental disabilities are offered little in the way of community or financial support and are discouraged from maintaining them in family care settings. Instead, they are often placed in high-care residential facilities at an average cost of $65,000 per year. The feedback, comments and consensus from the core services review process [ Page 4010 ] were that the current systems were both dysfunctional and unsustainable over the long term. Further, there was a strong consensus that regional and community-based models of governance are the preferred option for more effective and more efficient service delivery. Hundreds of community leaders have since begun to contribute their knowledge, ideas, time and energy as we try to reinvent governance in these areas of social service. Their wisdom has been gathered and has been focused. We are benefiting from the experience, training and knowledge of a remarkable range of people — those who have experienced, for better or for worse, the services of the ministry and who know very well how they could be improved; those who have devoted their lives to working in the ministry or providing it with contracted services and who believe in the good work that their dedication and training can accomplish. Those who have studied not only this province but other jurisdictions have received national and international experts to assist in this support. Their wisdom, like their trust, has been invaluable. By and large, people tend to distrust change. Our staff has largely accepted the challenge of working through a change. I thank them for their dedication, their professionalism and the dedication they show weekly and daily as we move through this process. The bill before us follows the path that has been laid out by four transition steering groups: for community living services; for child and family development; for infrastructure, both administrative and electronic; for accountability; for quality of service; for budget; and for the maintenance of internationally recognized standards of care. These steering committees are inclusive. They've had representation from the individuals and families we serve, from their parents, from ministry staff, from operations of contracted service delivery agencies and from academic experts. These groups have been at work for more than six months. Their working documents and minutes have all been posted on our website, where they have been downloaded and viewed by thousands of people. These transition steering committees have not all completed their tasks, but their broad recommendations are clear, and they have been used to construct the bill before this House. [Extracted Section] In the community living sector, I appointed a Community Living Transition Steering Committee in April to help define the transition from government to community-based governance. The steering committee brought together people with disabilities, family members, service providers, advocacy leaders and ministry staff. The steering committee reached out to people with disabilities, family members and service providers around the province to listen to their concerns and suggestions. For example, more than 1,700 individuals and families took part in regional meetings in 18 different communities — communities in every region of our province from Fort St. John to Nanaimo and from Terrace to Castlegar. The steering committee hosted video conferences linking more than 400 families in 20 communities over a four-week period, creating the opportunity for people to meet face to face across hundreds of kilometres to dialogue with steering committee members. Just last Thursday, I took part in one such video conference with more than 70 people with disabilities and family members from across the province. I joined the co-chairs of the steering committee and other committee members in responding to the issues and concerns from people in five different communities. This consultative process has helped the steering committee bring forward a report that will help us create a support structure that responds to the needs of individuals and of families. It's important for this House to know this background, because the bill before us is relatively brief. It is interim legislation, designed only to get us through the next phase of regional and community planning and the early stages of transition to regional and community governance. That phase will tap further down to the community level to design the delivery structures that are best suited to each community's unique challenges and strengths. This bill establishes interim community-based authorities that will carry on the current process of community consultation and decision-making. They will prepare for the transition to new permanent authorities that will take over most of the existing ministry's resources and service delivery. Those permanent authorities will be created by legislation in 2003. The next steps. While the details of the new authorities remain to be defined at the community level, the broad outline of the new structure has been defined by the work to date. There'll be five interim authorities for child and family services, with the same borders as the five provincial health regions. Interim CEOs and planning chairs for each region are already in place. Some of the regional chairs have already selected the members who will work with them on planning committees. They are further defining community needs, strengths and resources. They are hopeful and I am hopeful that many of these committee members will accept nominations to the boards of the interim authorities that will be enabled through this legislation. In the area of community living services, the provincial transition steering committee has recommended a single province wide authority for adults with developmental difficulties and special needs children. They have already recommended a name for this governance entity: Community Living B.C. I have received a detailed draft report from that committee, and we are currently working our way through its recommendations. I am pleased to say that cabinet has ratified the development of five aboriginal authorities responsible for the design and delivery of services to aboriginal children, families and communities. Aboriginal planning chairs for child and family services have been appointed in each of the five administrative regions of the province. The number and timing of interim aboriginal authorities will be determined through discussions among the joint aboriginal management committee, the regional aboriginal planning groups and the ministry. [ Page 4012 ] As I mentioned earlier, we recognize that the aboriginal governance process may differ in its approach and timing from the non-aboriginal system. The powers of all the interim authorities will be limited to transitional advisory planning and development activities. They will not be empowered to provide direct services to clients. Their role is to prepare for the permanent authorities in a number of ways, including making recommendations, including policies, procedures and plans for service delivery; developing computer systems for administrative services such as human resources, payroll, client records, finance and legal services; and setting up office space to ensure that the permanent authorities may begin operations as soon as possible as soon as they are established. The ministry's responsibilities under this legislation include setting objectives and providing the interim authorities with the information they need, assessing the interim authorities' ability to carry out their assigned tasks, giving direction to ensure that plans for the permanent authorities are consistent with the ministry's mandate for community-based service, and assigning staff to secondment to interim authorities. This transition process is about large-scale change. It is important that we make these changes in a manner that recognizes and respects the needs of our employees. The leadership of the BCGEU has taken the time, in a series of meetings across the province, to make contributions that will, I am sure, improve our planning process. We share a common goal: to serve the best interests of many of the most disadvantaged people of this province. I would like to thank George Heyman and his team for their contributions of time, knowledge and experience in this process. [1800] I expect to bring forward legislation in the spring of 2003 that will enable the creation of permanent governance authorities. That legislation will set out, in broad terms, the authority's responsibilities, accountability and governance procedures, including budget responsibilities. By April 2004 we will have established permanent authorities, recruited permanent boards and CEOs, and made a full transfer of responsibility, budget and staff to new authorities. The changes to this legislation will create a more stable system of services for children, families and adults with developmental disabilities. It will bring the capacity for decision-making closer to the community, providing faster and more direct responses to the needs of vulnerable people. It focuses on prevention as well as protection, building on people's strengths and resilience rather than their perceived deficits. The future ministry headquarters will be smaller but will retain responsibility for the overall setting of budgets and standards and monitoring performance measures. Youth custody will continue to be managed centrally, as will other facilities that offer a provincial service, such as Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre and Forensic Psychiatric Institute. The other front-line services will be operated much closer to the individuals and communities they're intended to provide for. We are tapping into the power of communities and giving them the resources they need to empower the children and families in their midst. I mentioned at the outset that there has been national and international attention being paid to what we are doing here. I would like to close by sharing with you the comments I received in a letter from Diane Richler, president and secretary general of Inclusion International. That is one of eight organizations sanctioned and accredited by the United Nations to deal with people with developmental disabilities. It represents organizations in more than a hundred countries, all working for and on behalf of adults with developmental disabilities. She writes: "The planned transformation of community living services, starting with the work currently underway with the transition steering committee, is a groundbreaking effort within Canada and internationally. The forward-thinking processes developed with individuals with developmental disabilities and their families is truly unique." I hope we can bear those words in mind over the next few years as we work our way towards common goals. Thank you. Hon. G. Hogg moved adjournment of debate. Motion approved. Hon. G. Hogg moved adjournment of the House. |
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