What’s the worst possible program a government could cut? One that would cause most people to shake their heads at the mere mention of the idea? One that would burst into flames and burn danger-hot the moment it became public knowledge?
The answer is: Support for kids with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Children who need medical help, with their family around them, in their most difficult moments. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect any right-minded government would protect, no matter how dire things get at the provincial treasury.
And yet. Somehow. Here we are in another head-scratching moment in B.C. politics.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said Monday she’ll restore funding to the BC Family Residence Program, which provides accommodation for moms and dads to take the sickest children in the province for treatment at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
The move came after massive backlash when Variety BC, which operates the program on behalf of the province, announced it was having to cut in half the number of accommodation days and put in restrictive eligibility caps on families.
“With increasing demand and reduced government funding, we’ve had to make difficult decisions to keep the BC Family Residence Program sustainable and focused on those with the greatest financial need,” Variety CEO Andrea Tang said.
Inexplicably, when the news first came out on Friday, the minister and government defended the decision.
“In the fiscal environment we’re in right now, the Health Ministry like all other ministries has been given a mandate to review programs, and so we were not able to expand the funding that we provide,” Osborne told media at an unrelated press conference.
The answer was preposterous. And it landed as such.
The NDP government has only started to review ways to find 0.3 per cent savings in its $95-billion budget. The finance minister just told the legislature this month it hasn’t actually cut anything yet. To think it would suddenly begin by taking an axe to travel costs for parents of sick kids is bizarre.
The Opposition BC Conservatives pounced over the weekend. “Outrageous,” fumed BC Conservative Leader John Rustad in a social media video that quickly made the rounds.
“They are spending millions of dollars to give drug paraphernalia to addicts as well as Doritos and they can’t find the money for families to be able to travel to be with their sick children at children’s hospital?” asked Rustad.
Finance critic Peter Milobar pointed to the many high-priced advisors hired by government, including the $1 million on the premier’s involuntary care advisor, the $350,000 to the original architect of the Provincial Health Services Agency to review the agency, the $58,000 to former NDP cabinet minister George Heyman to help with public sector bargaining, and the $150,000 contract to lawyer Michael Bryant to review the Downtown Eastside (which Premier David Eby had to scrap).
“Government has now taken to blaming charities when they get caught out underfunding critical services,” said Milobar. “What’s next, blaming food banks when they have more clients than food?”
The spending contrasts were brutal for the BC NDP. The funding decision was quickly reversed when Eby, who is away on a trade mission to Asia, got a look at it Monday.
“I was incredibly concerned to hear about this,” said the premier, apparently referencing the judgement of his own health minister.
“You know, when you have a family with a seriously ill child, parents are often taking time off of work, which means they have less disposable income to travel with. Their sole focus is on making sure their kid gets better, and they shouldn't be full of anxiety about how to access housing or accommodation for their family in the most expensive, one of the most expensive housing markets in the world, Vancouver.”
Osborne, snapped back into line, issued a statement that read: “I have directed my ministry to work with the PHSA, Variety and partners on options to ensure families can continue to receive these supports and that these restrictions are lifted.
“I have told them to move as quickly as possible, so as not to add further stress and uncertainty to families with sick kids across the province.”
In the end, quick work by people above Osborne appears to have squelched the immediate controversy of the Family Residency Program. Cooler heads prevailed. Rather than double down, the government pivoted to the right position.
Still, there’s cause for concern if you are a New Democrat.
That an entire group of people in the ministry of health, including the minister, approved this spending move in the first place, shows a troubling lack of judgement. That they thought it was even defensible, at first, indicates a failure to grasp political reality.
This is just the beginning of the process to tighten spending. More difficult decisions are on the horizon. What a shaky and concerning start for the government.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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