B.C. government: My bad

Solicitor General John Les admits 713 child deaths were unaccounted for in the province partly because the B.C. Liberal government didn't budget enough money to review the files.

In a letter to former judge Ted Hughes, who is conducting a review into what went wrong, Les said there was “clear evidence that budget constraints were a complicating factor” in the transition that saw 713 child death files go unexamined after the Liberals shut down the Children's Commission in 2002.

“It is clear from my review of the materials that a complete failure of the transition process resulted in the incomplete transfer of the child death review files from the Children's Commission to the Coroner's service,” Les said in the letter sent to media outlets yesterday.

Effectively, Les admitted the government axed the body responsible for reviewing child deaths and transferred its files to the Coroner's Office - but didn't give the Coroner's Office enough resources to handle its new workload.

The government originally saved $4 million by chopping the Children's Commission three years ago. $1.4 million was added to the Coroner's Office this past spring.

NDP critic Adrian Dix, who has kept the spotlight on the embattled Children's Ministry for months, said the Liberals still aren't taking any responsibility for their actions.

"Here we have a series of ministers who have been proven not to have done their job properly and there are no consequences for any of them," Dix said in an interview yesterday, naming Premier Gordon Campbell, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, Forests Minister Rich Coleman, the Children's Ministry's Stan Hagen and its former minister, Gordon Hogg.

But Dix stopped short of outright calling for heads to roll.

When asked if jobs should be lost as a result of yesterday's admission, Dix said, “I think that's an option,” but added, "It's the premier's responsibility to take responsibility and decide how accountability should be expressed in their government."

The issue came to light last month when Solicitor General Les revealed the files of 713 child deaths had been collecting dust in a Victoria warehouse for the last three years. The deaths included 14 children who died while in government care.

But the Children's Ministry has felt the heat for months, particularly with the delayed release of a report into the death of Port Alberni toddler Sherry Charlie this past year. The ministry placed 19-month-old Charlie in the care of her uncle without conducting a basic criminal check on him. He would later be convicted in her beating death, although he first told investigators Charlie's brother, Jamie, had pushed her down a flight of stairs.

The report also revealed the ministry had allowed the brother to stay in the uncle's care for months, even though investigator's knew Charlie's death was suspicious. It was first released in the form of a glossed-over, six-page summary, drawing charges of a cover-up from critics. The full report was released later in the summer.

An inquest into Charlie's death is scheduled for next February.