Opinion: But time will tell if he can change direction when he make his own mistakes
VICTORIA — When the New Democrats wrapped up the fall session of the legislature, they served up one last defence of the John Horgan government’s ill-advised plan to phase out individualized funding for children with autism.
The plan has been under fire almost from the day it was announced in October 2021. The latest attack come with the late November release of a survey by Autism B.C. showing 96 per cent opposition to the phaseout.
Sign up to know what's really happening by reading daily editorials and commentary by British Columbia's opinion leaders
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Vancouver Sun Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox.
Armed with those findings, Green MLA Adam Olsen put the question to David Eby, still in his first week as premier.
“To the premier — does his vision for B.C. include returning to individualized funding for parents and caregivers of children with autism?” Olsen asked Nov. 24.
Eby was in the house for question period that afternoon. But he left the answer to Children’s Minister Mitzi Dean, who framed her answer from inside the same message box where she’d been trapped for more than a year.
“We know that all children need to have access to the supports and services that are going to help them develop and help them thrive, and they need access to them as early as possible,” Dean replied.
“That’s why we’re moving toward a needs-based system for children and youth with support needs, because far too many children and youth are being left behind.”
Dean’s ministry was establishing one-stop hubs to co-ordinate services to address the needs of parents who had been waiting for months, even years, for autism services for their children.
Once those were running provincewide in 2025, individualized plans would be phased out.
Left unacknowledged — as always with the ineffectual minister — was the impact on families that had gone to the trouble of lining up individualized services for their children and the impact on the children themselves.
Olsen explained: “For kids receiving individual support, they have bonded with their service providers. These changes rip them away from their care team. It’s cruel, actually. It takes years for parents to find the right service providers for their children.
“When they do, those children develop close personal relationships with their caregivers. Parents have actually described them to us as part of the family. The new hub model doesn’t guarantee that those same providers will be available to families.”
“These children don’t understand government bureaucracy. All they know is that the people that they trust are no longer around them. It’s confusing, it’s distressing, and it’s traumatizing.”
In reply, Dean claimed, as usual, to be listening to families. “Where I’m hearing concerns, I’m taking them very seriously.”
But her concerns were less with the parents fearful of losing services than with those inspired by the promise of gaining services: “I hear from parents who say to me this change cannot come soon enough.”
“More children will have better access to services earlier in their development, and more children will thrive,” she claimed, again ignoring the impact on those who would be losing what they had struggled to establish.
When Dean sat down at 2:30 p.m. that Wednesday, her vaunted plan for the phase out had a little over 48 hours to go.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on Friday, reporters were summoned to the premier’s office where Eby announced that the government had reversed direction on the most controversial aspect of the changeover.
“The government will maintain individualized funding for children with an autism diagnosis instead of phasing it out in 2025.”
The effort would continue to expand access for those parents still waiting for diagnosis and services for their children.
“My hope here is that we have a reset where parents are reassured that they’ll get the services for kids that they need regardless of that kid’s diagnosis,” Eby told reporters.
But there would be no clawback of the individualized funding plans that were already in place.
“The best way for us to move forward is to ensure that those families that have services that are working for them are not stressed, are not anxious about what the future looks like,” said Eby. “We don’t want those parents to face any more stress. We’ve been listening and government is responding.”
The only part of that statement subject to dispute was the word “we.”
Though Dean was quoted briefly in the accompanying news release — “I look forward to working collaboratively with our partners” — Eby made the announcement solo in the premier’s office.
Parents, pundits and the public were invited to conclude that the decision was entirely Eby’s doing.
Here was a new premier who was not wedded to the decisions of his predecessor, nor captured by the bureaucracy as was the minister.
For the second time, Eby had reversed direction on a key matter of policy. On Nov. 22, he second guessed the prosecution service in issuing a directive for prosecutors to take a tougher approach in dealing with bail applications for repeat offenders.
Easier for a new premier to reverse direction on policies established on the watch of his predecessor. The real test for Premier Eby will be how handles things that he himself gets wrong.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
-
Vaughn Palmer: Eby's rush to oust B.C. Housing directors appears political, not financial
-
Vaughn Palmer: Run on politics, not business, B.C. hospital project budget soars 63%
-
Vaughn Palmer: David Eby has far more financial leeway that his predecessor, thanks to $5.7 billion budget surplus
More news, fewer ads: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For just $3.50 per week, you can get unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.