Campbell Must Come Clean on Child Advocate's Budget Cut
VICTORIA – It’s time for the Campbell government to come clean on the reasons behind their decision to cut $750,000 from the budget request of B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, the New Democrats said today.
Nicholas Simons“British Columbians should know who gave the direction to deny the representative’s budget. Today I filed a Freedom of Information request to try and get to the bottom of this,” said Nicholas Simons, the New Democrat children’s critic.
Simons has made a request for documents from the Premier’s office regarding the Campbell government’s mishandling of the issue.
“The Premier’s office would be involved in a significant decision such as this one, and so we are calling on the Campbell Liberals to come clean on what that specific role was,” said Simons.
“It’s time for the Campbell Liberals to stop playing partisan political games and start focusing on improving the protection of vulnerable children.”
The Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance, B.C. Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, has since admitted that the decision to cut the representative’s budget request “was a stupid mistake" and has agreed to the New Democrats’ request that the committee be reconvened.
Bruce Ralston“We are urging all the B.C. Liberal members of the committee to come to the meeting on Friday, admit their mistake and support the New Democrats in providing the representative with full funding,” said New Democrat MLA Bruce Ralston, Deputy Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance.
“The B.C. Liberals’ vindictive decision to cut the funding request for the children’s advocate has created chaos and confusion. Clearly, the Campbell government has the wrong priorities.”
The Finance Committee will meet in Victoria on Friday morning.
A copy of Simons' FOI request is attached below.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 2007-12-12 FOI request from Simons re RCY and OOP.pdf | 40.58 KB |
