Bob Mackin
When the Conservative critic for B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development pressed for details May 13 about children who died in government care, the NDP’s Minister of Finance intervened.
During a hearing on the ministry’s proposed $2.4 billion budget, Aimee Boultbee quoted from a Representative for Children and Youth report that said 103 children died in the last fiscal year while receiving services from the ministry.
Of those, 42 were deemed natural deaths; 25 accidental (of which 13 of those were drug overdoses); 20 undetermined; nine by suicide; and seven homicide.
Jodie Wickens, the NDP Minister of Children and Family Development, celebrated the end of a heated budget estimates hearing on May 13, 2025. (Wickens/X)
Boultbee (Conservative, Penticton-Summerland) asked Minister Jodie Wickens for the Ministry’s 2025 to-date statistics and to see anonymized death certificates.
Brenda Bailey, wearing her hat as deputy house leader, jumped in with a point of order.
“I’m wondering if the member opposite could help me understand the relationship between a request for a coroner’s certificate and the funding of the budget at hand. I’m just not following how those are linked,” said Bailey (NDP, Vancouver-South Granville).
“These questions seem absolutely relevant to the budget,” said Trevor Halford (Conservative, Surrey-White Rock). ‘They may be inconvenient for the minister, or the house leader, but they relate exactly to the ministry’s responsibility, the minister’s responsibility, and the budgetary numbers that come within that ministry.”
Said Wickens (NDP, Coquitlam-Burnaby Mountain): “If we want to talk about investments in child safety and keeping families together, we are continually doing the work in transformative ways, and we will continue to do that work.”
Boultbee pressed for more information on the cause of deaths of children in government care, but Wickens said it is the responsibility of the coroner’s office and she should ask there.
“I actually did ask the coroner’s office, and he told me to ask this ministry,” Boultbee replied.
“I’m a member of the opposition, and I have a right to ask these questions and get answers, and I expect those answers.”
After it was all over, Wickens celebrated with a post on X in front of her staff.
“We did it! Estimates for the Ministry of Children and Family Development is done and officially in the books!” Wickens wrote. “A heartfelt thank you to the team for their unwavering support, not only during the review process but every day as we continue to assist the children and youth in B.C.”
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