[FEAT BC Admin]

In this topic area, discussion is about the fight to secure Government funding for your A.B.A. treatment program. It is also the place to talk about your thoughts and ideas about how to establish new Government programs specifically designed for autism treatment.

This is the place to hear input from parents who have fought for funding and won, as well as those who have fought for funding and would like to share their horror stories. There is a tendency to not share success stories once funding is secured. Please fight that tendency. By sharing our experience, we all become stronger.

 

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—-By FEAT BC (Freeman) on Saturday, January 3, 1998 – 03:16 pm:

-Hi everyone!

These are some things to think about in your dealings with government to help you to obtain support for your child’s Autism Treatment Program. These are my personal opinions and do not represent those of FEAT of BC or any other organization.

Many of these observations are based on my personal experiences (and I believe it poetic justice to help every parent avoid being systematically abused by their social worker the way I was).

Good luck to everyone! (Let’s all pull back the curtain on the Wizard of OZ).

Sabrina

 

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How To Fight for Funding for Autism Treatment and Appropriate School Placement

1. Establish a Paper Trail

Always take notes, documenting major points of all conversations with government and school officials.

This includes casual, in person conversations with social workers as well as ALL telephone conversations. All key points of discussion must be written down in your notes including the date and time of the discussion. This includes what was agreed upon, as well as what was not agreed upon.

Then the notes should be used to write a letter recapping the substance and content of the conversation. This letter must then be mailed or faxed to the person with whom you had the conversation. In addition, a copy must be kept in your file (see section on the icci game).

Why?

It is important to formalize the interaction between you and Government officials. In addition, everyone is put on notice that they must closely adhere to their responsibilities, regulations and laws., Furthermore, they must then consider the paper trail you have created. This lets everyone know that the interaction can become public and that any abuses of power and authority can be formally appealed and/or publicized.

In other words, they canit use discretion unfairly under the cloak of secrecy.

2. Submit all Requests in Writing

All your requests for your child must be submitted formally in writing with a copy included in your file and a copy, if necessary, sent to their immediate superiors.

3. Set Deadlines for Action

All formal requests for action must have a reasonable deadline set for that action. If no action or response is received by the deadline you have set (two weeks for example), then you will interpret the lack of response as a formal declination (a formal NO) of your requests.

Why Set Deadlines?

When bureaucrats do not want to do something, they will stall by ignoring you and your request. (As an aside, in the study of the bureaucracy, this is known as ithe power to do nothingi). They can string you along for years. When you have determined that the person you are interacting with is not inclined to help you or is not dealing in good faith, then you must take the initiative and formally label his/her behavior as obstructionist and de facto as a declination (a NO to your requests). This allows you to move to the next level of authority on your timetable to present your case. This takes the power to do nothing away from the bureaucrat with whom you are dealing. Simple stated, a bureaucrat who stalls and does nothing becomes irrelevant (use your invisible spray) and you move on to the next level of authority.

How to icci?

A cc. is a copy of your letter sent to someone other than the person you are writing. You put the cc. at the bottom left-hand corner of your letter followed by 2 spaces and the name of the person or people to whom you want to send a copy of the letter.

Who to icci to?

Sometimes it is best not to icci at all, especially in the early stages of the relationship (for example, your first letter to a social worker requesting assistance). This gives them the opportunity to do the right thing and does not present you as an overly combative person. When you start to run into problems, it is a good idea to send the icci to the 2 immediate superiors of the person you are having problems with. We do not recommend icciing all the way up the chain of command, since you want to give them a chance to solve the problem at the local level.

Why send a icci copy?

The reason for playing the icci game is that you want your interactions with the official to be known to his superior and possibly to other organizations so that 1) their action or inaction becomes a matter of record and 2) the individual knows he is being monitored. This helps minimize abuses of power and authority and helps encourage the official to meet their obligations and do the right thing.

What is the sequence of letters?

Find out the chain of command of the particular bureaucracy you are battling.

TOP

Minister
Deputy Minister
Children’s Ministry’s local region chain of command, all the way down to the District Supervisor
and Social Worker
Contacts can be found at the government directory: http://www.dir.gov.bc.ca/

BOTTOM

Start at the bottom and climb. At the Regional Operating Officer (ROO) level (once you have been declined) you have to decide whether to jump up to the top, threaten and then go to the media, or both. A word of wisdom: DO NOT BLUFF. If you are not willing to go all the way, they will ‘smell’ this. You must be prepared to take it right up to the Minister and beyond.

Documentation from Experts:

In your arsenal to fight for your child, it is wise to get his/her pediatrician and/or psychiatrist to write a letter on your childis behalf. In addition, any other experts who know your child and are sympathetic to what you are trying to do should become involved.

When to hire a lawyer?

If money is not an issue, you can hire a lawyer when you get to the area manager level. Make sure that you have a paper trail so the lawyer has something to work with. Also, have the lawyer give F.E.A.T. of B.C. a call, and we will send him/her information that will help.

If money is an issue (as it is for most of us running autism treatment programs), you might want to hire a lawyer once you have been turned down by the Minister.

How to hire a lawyer?

The type of lawyer needed is a litigator, or trial lawyer. S/he does not need to be an expert in autism, or special needs; s/he needs to be experienced in suing governments, and enjoys being in court. Word of mouth is a good way to find a lawyer.

Topic

[Dubravka Skrijelj]

Hello to all parents!

I am having some difficulties with receiving the IEII funds for my 5 y/old child. In the past we have been receiving the $1,667.00 monthly without problem. From April 1st, since we have signed our new contract with the Ministry, we haven’t got any money for our ABA therapy yet.

Does anyone of you parents have the same problem and since when?

[FEAT BC Admin]

In response to several requests, we’re posting the link for Dr. Sabrina Freeman’s radio interview on 'Science For Sale in the Autism Wars.' The interview can be heard at this address:

http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/wsradio/elder/041704 segment4.asx <–end link

Below is a repost of the interview topic.
________________________________________________
On Saturday, April 17th at 4:00 PM, FEAT of BC Executive Director, Dr. Sabrina Freeman, will give an interview regarding 'Science For Sale in the Autism Wars' on wsRadio, San Diego.

This whistleblower book chronicles the B.C. Government's use of intellectual fraud and deception in the Auton case: the junk science manufactured and delivered to court by U.B.C. health policy academics in governments's effort to defeat families in the landmark legal battle for children's medically necessary autism treatment.

The case is slated for a June 2004 hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada. All provincial governments in the country and Canada's Federal government have received Intervener status to submit arguments before the high court as to why the Auton case, in their view, must be struck down. The arguments made by the BC Government in the Auton case rely in large measure on the 'playbook' that has now been exposed in detail by 'Science For Sale in the Autism Wars.'

For those interested in hearing about what the BC government did in its attempt to quash the Charter's equality rights for children with autism in BC Supreme Court, the interview will be on wsRadio's 'Coping With Caring' program …
________________________________________________

http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/wsradio/elder/041704 segment4.asx <– end link

[FEAT BC Admin]

To FEAT-BC Discussion Board Members
************************************************

On Saturday, April 17th at 4:00 PM, FEAT of BC Executive Director, Dr. Sabrina Freeman, will give an interview regarding 'Science For Sale in the Autism Wars' on wsRadio, San Diego.

This whistleblower book chronicles the B.C. Government's use of intellectual fraud and deception in the Auton case: the junk science manufactured and delivered to court by U.B.C. health policy academics in governments's effort to defeat families in the landmark legal battle for children's medically necessary autism treatment.

The case is slated for a June 2004 hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada. All provincial governments in the country and Canada's Federal government have received Intervener status to submit arguments before the high court as to why the Auton case, in their view, must be struck down. The arguments made by the BC Government in the Auton case rely in large measure on the 'playbook' that has now been exposed in detail by 'Science For Sale in the Autism Wars.'

For those interested in hearing about what the BC government did in its attempt to quash the Charter's equality rights for children with autism in BC Supreme Court, the interview will be on wsRadio's 'Coping With Caring' program. The interview can be heard live this Saturday afternoon, April 17th at 4:00 PM, streamed over the Internet at the following web address: http://www.wsradio.com/livestream.asx

Note:
– Windows Media Player is required to hear the program. The software can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp <–end link
– Mac users: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/mac71.aspx <–end link
– OS-X: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/software/macintosh/osx/default.aspx <–end link

FEAT of BC Board Admin.

[Lis Louwrier]

Dear Sabrina

My husband and I just listened to your radio interview with Bill Good. Thank you very much for bringing this information to the public. Hopefully it will be heard by parents of young children with autism. It is terribly important information which needs to be heard. A big thanks as well to you and other experienced parents for listening and advising 10 months ago when our son received his diagnosis. Your dedication is simply amazing.

Lisbeth
Ryan's mom

[FEAT BC Admin]

On Monday (02/09/04) CKNW's Bill Good Program interviewed Dr. Sabrina Freeman, author of 'Science for Sale in the Autism Wars: Medically necessary autism treatment, the court battle for health insurance and why health technology academics are enemy number one."

Dr.Freeman's book exposes, in well-documented detail, the dishonest advocacy research B.C.'s Ministry of Health commissioned for their defense in the landmark Auton case. The B.C. Supreme Court ruled that health policy academics at U.B.C. had produced "obviously biased" research for the court hearings. Ignoring the court's troubling finding of fact, the B.C. Office of Health Technology has nevertheless gone on to publish and distribute — worldwide — its negative and highly misleading report on Lovaas Autism Treatment.

The radio interview is available on the FEAT BC server at this address:
–> http://www.featbc.org/the_media/

… then please follow the 'radio interviews' link.

[Isaac]

From http://www.globeandmail.com

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004

Province told to pay in autism case
Failed to produce evidence in battle over funding program, judge says

By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER

An Ontario judge has ordered the province to pay several thousands of dollars to 29 parents of autistic children because it failed to produce evidence at the heart of a 10-month-old trial. Madam Justice Frances Kiteley of the Ontario Superior Court said the award will cover the cost of having the evidence examined by experts and then woven into the parents' case against the government for failing to provide adequate care. "I have been doing this kind of litigation for about 20 years, and this is the first time I've had something like this crop up," said Mary Eberts, a lawyer for the parents.
Ms. Eberts said that the plaintiffs stumbled on the missing information — mainly statistics and evaluations of the provincial autism program — after they had closed their case. They will be permitted to deal with the new material after the province completes its defence in several weeks. "This is absolutely, totally the guts of the case," Ms. Eberts said in an interview. "When they produced it, we went ballistic. It makes us all so mad that we just happened upon evidence almost by accident that is going to be favourable to us."

The case, launched by 29 couples with children who have autism, is akin to a class action. Both sides are locked in a mammoth trial that has featured testimony from children with autism, parents, senior bureaucrats and expert witnesses from as far away as California. The plaintiffs allege that a government policy unconstitutionally deprives autistic children over the age of 5 of a widely hailed program capable of enhancing their ability to function in school and society. Yesterday, Judge Kiteley ordered an advance payment of $10,000 in costs. Ms. Eberts said that the total award is likely to be $40,000 or $50,000. She said that while she does not suspect government lawyers Robert Charney and Sarah Kraicer of having concealed the material, the situation shows that the province cannot keep track of its own information. The information was compiled by lawyers in the Ministry of the Attorney-General who were pursuing a separate autism case. Ms. Eberts said they unaccountably failed to pass it on to Mr. Charney and Ms. Kraicer. Ms. Eberts and her co-counsel became puzzled a few weeks ago when Mr. Charney tried to introduce a chart that bore oblique references to unfamiliar statistics and records. "We said: 'There's no way you can use those charts without producing the backup data,' " Ms. Eberts recalled yesterday. "When they produced it, it was absolutely new stuff we had never seen before. It shows what a mess their statistics are." About 500 children are in the autism program, while another 1,000 are on a waiting list and will probably turn 6 before they can qualify. There are thought to be another 2,000 children over the age of 6 with an autism diagnosis. The plaintiffs are seeking damages and a declaration forcing the province to extend treatment to any child with an autism diagnosis. "To the extent that the new statistics show the number of children being served was lower than they claim, and that the children got less service, they are favourable to us," Ms. Ebert said. "Given that the trial has already been prolonged beyond what the parents had bargained on, it's very upsetting for them." The province began fighting the multimillion-dollar lawsuit under the previous Progressive Conservative government. In a letter to parents of a child with autism shortly before the election last fall, Premier Dalton McGuinty described the autism policy as "unfair and discriminatory." The plaintiffs' legal bill stands at about $1.2-million. According to Ms Eberts, this pales in comparison to what the province must be paying its larger team of lawyers and bureaucrats immersed in the case. Mr. Charney could not be reached for comment yesterday.

[Susan Burns]

hi everyone and happy new year…..I couldn't make the Feat meeting this past Monday which I full intended too……as mcf is not in the least bit supportive of James' aba program and I had so much trouble getting my partial funding last year I would love any tips to start campaigning on his behalf for this year…..[I'm remaining suspicious with all the gov't shuffling]
Susan [James's mom] spbpt2002@yahoo.ca

[Deleted User]

In case you wonder where our child's money is going.
Special prosecutor to probe B.C. case
Head of government agency questioned over firm's dealings

Sean Holman
Special to Times Colonist

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Children and Family Development Minister Gordon Hogg, left, with Douglas Walls, acting CEO of the province's interim authority for community living.

ADVERTISEMENT

A special prosecutor has been named to look into an RCMP report concerning business practices at a car dealership once run by the head of a B.C. government agency.

Geoffrey Gaul, spokesman for the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General's Ministry, said that Vancouver lawyer Josiah Wood was appointed last week as a result of enquiries by the Times Colonist.

Wood will act as a special prosecutor to work with the RCMP regarding activities at the Prince George dealership previously owned by Douglas Walls, acting CEO of the province's interim authority for community living.

Walls, a former president of a B.C. Liberal riding association and relative by marriage of Premier Gordon Campbell, has denied any wrongdoing by himself or the company.

He was quietly appointed to his current position six months after the office of Children and Family Development Minister Gordon Hogg was notified that allegations of fraud had been made against Walls by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Walls denies those accusations, which arose while he managed the auto dealership as a family business in Prince George. Neither the Mounties nor Gaul would confirm whether the CIBC allegations are included in the report. But a bank official said CIBC handed its evidence to the RCMP.

RCMP spokesman Const. Mike Caira said in an interview that the force's commercial crime unit has submitted a report to Crown counsel recommending charges against "former employees and management" of the dealership, Fred Walls & Sons Ltd.

Cpl. Sandy Smith, who works with the RCMP's commercial crimes unit, confirmed that is the report being looked at by Wood. The Mounties would not say whether Walls is among those facing potential charges.

Walls also received thousands of dollars in untendered government contracts through a grant given by the Ministry of Children and Family Development to the B.C. Association for Community Living. The way those contracts were awarded raised concerns among some officials connected with the issue. However, Walls maintained that favouritism played no role.

Walls received the contracts as part of a provincial government initiative to move responsibility for the care of the developmentally disabled from the ministry to a new independent authority that is expected to take over this role in June.

Last January, the executive committee of the interim authority that is overseeing the transition decided to make Walls its acting chief executive officer.

In a letter to Deputy Minister Chris Haynes that was obtained by the Times Colonist, David Driscoll, co-chairman of the interim authority, wrote of Walls: "His official title within the organization will remain 'Senior Consultant, Planning and Development,' but for the purposes of the Interim Authority's bylaws and for purposes of all Ministry-related activity and involvement, he has been designated as the CEO."

The appointment was not formally announced. When Hogg was asked in the legislature two months later who was heading the association, he did not mention Walls's name. Hogg said only that "they will be going through a selection process at some time in the next number of months."

Driscoll, who was a board member of the B.C. Association for Community Living at the same time Walls was president, said in an interview he was not aware of the allegations concerning Walls, but would have looked into them had he known about them.

In 2002, Walls received $63,823 in untendered contracts over a six-month period to work on the transition project. The money came from a grant of $450,000 that the ministry provided to the Association for Community Living. According to government procurement policies, contracts of more than $25,000 must be put out to tender.

The money that went to Walls, however, came from seven separate contracts so that none individually exceeded the $25,000 limit. Walls said in an interview the contracts were awarded without competition because the fund it came from was "an unconditional grant," so normal government procurement rules did not apply.

However, Hogg and Driscoll said the transition committee was expected to follow the rules in obtaining goods and services.

The untendered contracts upset at least two members of the committee overseeing the transition — and one of them made sure that Hogg knew about her concerns.

Alanna Hendren, executive director of the Developmental Disabilities Association, faxed Hogg on July 8, 2002. She said Walls had "contracted with government through the (transition committee) for a great deal of money but there was no competitive process for those contracts and certainly no review of his qualifications at the project support and admin level. This raises a great number of concerns for me and others."

Hogg said he passed those concerns to Haynes. The minister said his understanding was that Haynes had requested a review by the office of the auditor general, but Eroll Price, a senior official at the auditor general's office, said no review was conducted. Haynes did not return phone calls.

Ten days after sending the fax, Hendren e-mailed Hogg's executive assistant, Ed Masters, again questioning the contracts given to Walls. She attached copies of the allegations made by CIBC.

"I don't think I need to point out that all this information is publicly available," she wrote, "and, in my opinion does not help the minister, nor this government look very good, particularly as Doug Walls had told many people that he is related to the premier and has a major 'in' with the minister."

Hendren did not explain that "in" in her e-mail. However, Walls's wife, Sharon, is a cousin of the premier's wife Nancy. Walls is also a former president of the Prince George-Omenica Liberal riding association, and has a longstanding professional relationship with Haynes.

The two met in Prince George when Haynes was a regional manager for the ministry there and Walls was president of the Prince George Association for Community Living. The father of a disabled daughter, the 51-year-old Walls has been active in the community living movement for some 20 years.

Hogg acknowledged he knew about Walls's business problems, even before receiving Hendren's e-mail — although he was not aware of the details. However, he said in an interview, those problems did not concern him because Walls had an enthusiastic endorsement from Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond.

Hogg said Bond told him that Walls "had exceptional skills. And she had great confidence in him and his integrity. She said he had some issues in the Prince George area that needed to be dealt with, but she had confidence he could carry out the work."

Those "issues" stem from Walls's time running Fred Walls & Sons, a car dealership his father founded in 1946. Under Doug Walls's leadership, the business was successful at first but fell on hard times in the depressed markets of 1997 and 1998. It went bankrupt in 1998.

According to a B.C. Supreme Court judgment, the troubles got worse in March 1998 when an official from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce discovered a "kiting" of cheques between the dealership's account there and accounts of two numbered companies set up by Fred Walls & Sons at a Prince George credit union.

("Kiting" occurs when someone writes a cheque knowing the account has insufficient funds to cover its value. It is possible because banks will often make funds available from a deposited cheque before verifying whether there is money available to cover the cheque. Kiting can carry a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.)

Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem noted Walls admitted to bank officials "that between the CIBC and the Spruce Credit Union one or the other would be 'out about $1 million.' "

On the basis of that evidence, CIBC requested a summary judgment for damages against Walls and his business partner Mike Millard. But during the court case, Walls said CIBC officials "knew and acquiesced in the way the accounts were being operated."

Those differing stories meant the issue would have to be resolved through a full trial — something that Walls's lawyer, Jan Christiansen, said his client wanted. Instead, CIBC communications director Rob McLeod says the bank turned its evidence over to police.

After an investigation, which began in May 1998, the RCMP's commercial crime unit submitted a report recommending criminal charges against "former employees and management" of Fred Walls & Sons.

That report, which includes court documents from a recent civil case, is being looked at by special prosecutor Wood.

Sean Holman is editorial director of Public Eye magazine. This article was prepared with the assistance of freelance journalist Barbara McLintock.

© Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)

[Deleted User]

In case you wonder where our child's money is going.
Special prosecutor to probe B.C. case
Head of government agency questioned over firm's dealings

Sean Holman
Special to Times Colonist

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Children and Family Development Minister Gordon Hogg, left, with Douglas Walls, acting CEO of the province's interim authority for community living.

ADVERTISEMENT

A special prosecutor has been named to look into an RCMP report concerning business practices at a car dealership once run by the head of a B.C. government agency.

Geoffrey Gaul, spokesman for the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General's Ministry, said that Vancouver lawyer Josiah Wood was appointed last week as a result of enquiries by the Times Colonist.

Wood will act as a special prosecutor to work with the RCMP regarding activities at the Prince George dealership previously owned by Douglas Walls, acting CEO of the province's interim authority for community living.

Walls, a former president of a B.C. Liberal riding association and relative by marriage of Premier Gordon Campbell, has denied any wrongdoing by himself or the company.

He was quietly appointed to his current position six months after the office of Children and Family Development Minister Gordon Hogg was notified that allegations of fraud had been made against Walls by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Walls denies those accusations, which arose while he managed the auto dealership as a family business in Prince George. Neither the Mounties nor Gaul would confirm whether the CIBC allegations are included in the report. But a bank official said CIBC handed its evidence to the RCMP.

RCMP spokesman Const. Mike Caira said in an interview that the force's commercial crime unit has submitted a report to Crown counsel recommending charges against "former employees and management" of the dealership, Fred Walls & Sons Ltd.

Cpl. Sandy Smith, who works with the RCMP's commercial crimes unit, confirmed that is the report being looked at by Wood. The Mounties would not say whether Walls is among those facing potential charges.

Walls also received thousands of dollars in untendered government contracts through a grant given by the Ministry of Children and Family Development to the B.C. Association for Community Living. The way those contracts were awarded raised concerns among some officials connected with the issue. However, Walls maintained that favouritism played no role.

Walls received the contracts as part of a provincial government initiative to move responsibility for the care of the developmentally disabled from the ministry to a new independent authority that is expected to take over this role in June.

Last January, the executive committee of the interim authority that is overseeing the transition decided to make Walls its acting chief executive officer.

In a letter to Deputy Minister Chris Haynes that was obtained by the Times Colonist, David Driscoll, co-chairman of the interim authority, wrote of Walls: "His official title within the organization will remain 'Senior Consultant, Planning and Development,' but for the purposes of the Interim Authority's bylaws and for purposes of all Ministry-related activity and involvement, he has been designated as the CEO."

The appointment was not formally announced. When Hogg was asked in the legislature two months later who was heading the association, he did not mention Walls's name. Hogg said only that "they will be going through a selection process at some time in the next number of months."

Driscoll, who was a board member of the B.C. Association for Community Living at the same time Walls was president, said in an interview he was not aware of the allegations concerning Walls, but would have looked into them had he known about them.

In 2002, Walls received $63,823 in untendered contracts over a six-month period to work on the transition project. The money came from a grant of $450,000 that the ministry provided to the Association for Community Living. According to government procurement policies, contracts of more than $25,000 must be put out to tender.

The money that went to Walls, however, came from seven separate contracts so that none individually exceeded the $25,000 limit. Walls said in an interview the contracts were awarded without competition because the fund it came from was "an unconditional grant," so normal government procurement rules did not apply.

However, Hogg and Driscoll said the transition committee was expected to follow the rules in obtaining goods and services.

The untendered contracts upset at least two members of the committee overseeing the transition — and one of them made sure that Hogg knew about her concerns.

Alanna Hendren, executive director of the Developmental Disabilities Association, faxed Hogg on July 8, 2002. She said Walls had "contracted with government through the (transition committee) for a great deal of money but there was no competitive process for those contracts and certainly no review of his qualifications at the project support and admin level. This raises a great number of concerns for me and others."

Hogg said he passed those concerns to Haynes. The minister said his understanding was that Haynes had requested a review by the office of the auditor general, but Eroll Price, a senior official at the auditor general's office, said no review was conducted. Haynes did not return phone calls.

Ten days after sending the fax, Hendren e-mailed Hogg's executive assistant, Ed Masters, again questioning the contracts given to Walls. She attached copies of the allegations made by CIBC.

"I don't think I need to point out that all this information is publicly available," she wrote, "and, in my opinion does not help the minister, nor this government look very good, particularly as Doug Walls had told many people that he is related to the premier and has a major 'in' with the minister."

Hendren did not explain that "in" in her e-mail. However, Walls's wife, Sharon, is a cousin of the premier's wife Nancy. Walls is also a former president of the Prince George-Omenica Liberal riding association, and has a longstanding professional relationship with Haynes.

The two met in Prince George when Haynes was a regional manager for the ministry there and Walls was president of the Prince George Association for Community Living. The father of a disabled daughter, the 51-year-old Walls has been active in the community living movement for some 20 years.

Hogg acknowledged he knew about Walls's business problems, even before receiving Hendren's e-mail — although he was not aware of the details. However, he said in an interview, those problems did not concern him because Walls had an enthusiastic endorsement from Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond.

Hogg said Bond told him that Walls "had exceptional skills. And she had great confidence in him and his integrity. She said he had some issues in the Prince George area that needed to be dealt with, but she had confidence he could carry out the work."

Those "issues" stem from Walls's time running Fred Walls & Sons, a car dealership his father founded in 1946. Under Doug Walls's leadership, the business was successful at first but fell on hard times in the depressed markets of 1997 and 1998. It went bankrupt in 1998.

According to a B.C. Supreme Court judgment, the troubles got worse in March 1998 when an official from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce discovered a "kiting" of cheques between the dealership's account there and accounts of two numbered companies set up by Fred Walls & Sons at a Prince George credit union.

("Kiting" occurs when someone writes a cheque knowing the account has insufficient funds to cover its value. It is possible because banks will often make funds available from a deposited cheque before verifying whether there is money available to cover the cheque. Kiting can carry a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.)

Supreme Court Justice Ian Meiklem noted Walls admitted to bank officials "that between the CIBC and the Spruce Credit Union one or the other would be 'out about $1 million.' "

On the basis of that evidence, CIBC requested a summary judgment for damages against Walls and his business partner Mike Millard. But during the court case, Walls said CIBC officials "knew and acquiesced in the way the accounts were being operated."

Those differing stories meant the issue would have to be resolved through a full trial — something that Walls's lawyer, Jan Christiansen, said his client wanted. Instead, CIBC communications director Rob McLeod says the bank turned its evidence over to police.

After an investigation, which began in May 1998, the RCMP's commercial crime unit submitted a report recommending criminal charges against "former employees and management" of Fred Walls & Sons.

That report, which includes court documents from a recent civil case, is being looked at by special prosecutor Wood.

Sean Holman is editorial director of Public Eye magazine. This article was prepared with the assistance of freelance journalist Barbara McLintock.

© Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)

[Deleted User]

More government cuts
IA, BCACL sell out Community Living:
New budget deal shows leaders agreed to 3 X the cuts required for adult services under revised June 03 Ministry budget plan

The Interim Authority for Community Living BC has just posted details of a backroom budget deal for community living which they negotiated with the Ministry for Child and Family Development (MCFD) and convinced most agencies to endorse over the holidays.
http://interimauthorityclbc.ca/PDF/ServiceProviderBudgetStrategy.pdf

The budget proposal requires total cuts for the non-profit community agencies who provide adult community living of $60 million over 2003/04 and 2004/05. That's almost triple the $22 million cuts to the entire Community Living sector required in the Ministry's revised budget plans announced in June 2003 (see attached).

The budget proposal acknowledges that these cuts pose significant risks, including staff cuts, service cuts, termination of services and significant cuts to programs that assist families in coping, stating that "this change may result in health and safety concerns being raised by families."

Meanwhile, limited news from the Ministry's other main sector, child and family services, suggest further cuts of 10% to 16% being enforced across the board at a time when the bulk of the 12% cuts have already been made. Clearly, Minister Hogg and his Cabinet colleagues are making an outrageous grab for extra savings from Hogg's vulnerable clients to meet their fiscal targets, confident that they can get away with this while the media is distracted with the Victoria scandal.

The Community Living document also sounds a warning for agencies who don't play along, calling on government to "aggressively pursue and accomplish forced reductions" of at least 5% for them, on top of new budget cuts identified in this deal.

The agreed-upon cuts amount to approx $10 million for 2003/04 and another $50 million for 2004/05.

In total that's a 14% cut relative to the $435 million budget for Community Living agency contracts. It comes on top of the $50 million already cut through voluntarily savings offered by agencies in this sector in 2002/03. Altogether, that's more than 20% cut from agencies in this sector over three years.

These agency cuts also come on top of the cuts to the Ministry's own operations, which support Community Living and Child and Family services. (The Ministry had cut 700 of its 5,000 staff by June 2003. In Sept 2003 they announced another 525 would be cut by April 2004 for additional savings of $18 million. Many of those staff were front-line social workers and support workers.)

How does this measure up to government commitments?

MCFD originally planned 23% cuts ($360 million) Ministry-wide over three years (2002-2005). Of that, the share for Community Living was originally slated at 17% of the 2001 baseline budget.

Following a June 2003 Budget Review which clearly identified the grave harm such cuts would cause, Premier Campbell revised the Ministry's overall budget reduction target over three years from $360 million to $172 million. At that point, the Ministry said it had already achieved $100 million in savings, which left a further $70 million in cuts to be found by 2004-05. Cuts to Ministry operations would achieve $18 million, as later announced in September, and several other measures would accomplish the remaining $52 million reduction required.

The Ministry stated that the share of cuts still to come for Community Living would total $22 million in all, and that this could be achieved relatively painlessly through voluntary inititiatives to achieve savings through efficiencies (see attached).

In early December, it became clear that this plan had hit a snag, with the leak of a letter from Deputy Minister Chris Haynes demanding that agencies help achieve $100 in cuts or face widespread contract retendering (see attached). Widespread reports of the Deputy Minister calling non-profit agency Board members at home to threaten them into compliance set off further alarm bells.

Just before the holidays, word leaked that a budget reference group, selected by Hogg's appointees in the process to devolve community living services, had reached a compromise budget deal. BCACL, the association representing agencies which has worked very closely with Hogg and his IA, urged all members to endorse this deal, warning that the alternative would be "draconian" measures (see attached). BCACL regretfully admitted this deal would increase risk and that no cuts were justified (in a system where 2/3 of clients are on waiting lists). But they assured agencies this was the best deal possible.

The IA and BCACL leadership, strong proponents of the controversial plan to devolve services to a new provincial Community Living authority, suggested that their devolution plan could be in jeopardy if they didn't play along. What they forgot to mention was that the original plan for a family-led community governance model, which has shape-shifted into a new bureaucracy with a single provincial office and a corporate board of political appointees, has already betrayed the dreams of most of its original proponents.

Families who got wind of the budget deal over the holidays expressed strong disapproval, accusing leaders of betrayal and charging that the deal violates numerous key commitments, including:

– The government's commitment to put the welfare of vulnerable individuals ahead of fiscal objectives.
– That no cuts or service changes would be made forcibly in community living
– That any savings found through efficiencies would first go to addressing waitlists
– That families and individuals would be consulted before any changes were made.

When the final terms of the budget deal were finally made public this week, it became clear that the betrayal went far deeper. Hogg's appointees at the Interim Authority and agency leaders at BCACL have convinced agencies to agree to budget cuts that almost triple the government's own revised budget reduction targets for community living.

As part of the budget deal, the BCACL and IA-sponsored Budget Reference group committed that they and other agencies would work with government to develop a communications strategy to sell the deal to the public. They acknowledged the need to move slowly to avoid an "uancceptable" level of negative reaction from the community.

They also acknowledge that the plan poses significant risks, including staff reductions, service reductions and termination of some services. It is also acknowledged that the cuts "will significantly impact non-residential programs that traditionally provide limited support to families that assist them in coping – this change may result in health and safety concerns being raised by families."

The proposal outlines how the cuts are to be achieved, through a mix of voluntary and forced cuts to agency budgets, along with savings that government hopes to help agencies achieve through wage/benefit rollbacks for unionized agency staff under current contract negotations. Some of these new cuts have already been agreed to, though most remain to be actually implemented on the ground.

While the language suggests that most cuts will be voluntary, there is a clear warning for agencies that don't comply. Section 3.4 states that the Ministry will "aggressively pursue and accomplish forced reductions in funding for agencies identified in Initiative 12 [non-voluntary] at a level not less than five percent per annum exclusive of the across the board funding reductions specified" in the proposal.

The document also offers conflicting thoughts on the extent that the wishes and concerns of families and individuals must be respected in implementing the cuts.

The release of this document raises serious questions about the role of the Interim Authority, BCACL and others who negotiated this deal with Hogg on behalf of the sector and who have agreed to help him sell it to agencies and the wider community. This closed circle of Hogg appointees originally proposed the 2001 plan to devolve governance, implement individualized funding and achieve 20% cuts in a transition to a new provincial authority that they would control following restructuring. They have served as the main cheerleaders for Hogg's disastrous program to radically downsize and dismantle his own Ministry, ignoring widespread community opposition (see feedback at http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/change/cltsc_comments.htm ) and repeated warnings from a series of experts appointed by Hogg himself.

The boards of both organizations have sold out a highly-vulnerable community that put its faith in them and they need to seriously question whose interests they are serving. In light of these revelations, both boards should resign immediately.

Minister Hogg and his Deputy, meanwhile, are just doing the job that Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Collins assigned them–i.e. dismantling their own Ministry while trying to avoid generating "unacceptable" levels of negative reaction from the public.

[Author]

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