Children and Families

New law to keep young people safe

21/06/2000

VICTORIA - New legislation will give parents and authorities the power to get help for high-risk children and youth who are unable or unwilling to help themselves, Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and Children and Families Minister Gretchen M. Brewin announced today.

"Life on the street can mean a life wasted," Dosanjh said. "Parents want society to protect their children. With this legislation, we will have more options to help young people escape a life of drugs or prostitution."

Brewin plans to introduce the secure care act 2000 in the B.C. legislature next week. The act is the result of extensive consultation with more than 200 groups and individuals that began in 1998. It gives authorities the power to detain young people in a safe environment to protect them from extremely harmful behaviour as a last resort.

Unlike Alberta's legislation, B.C.'s secure care act is not limited to prostitution but includes other forms of self-harm, such as severe drug addiction.

"We have an excellent network of services to help young people, but sometimes they reject the help they desperately need - and in the past there's been nothing friends, families or the government could do," Brewin said. "For the first time in B.C., we will have the power to get young people with life-threatening problems off the streets and to give them a chance at a better tomorrow."

The act creates an independent secure-care board and a director of secure care within the Ministry for Children and Families. It also includes safeguards to protect the rights of children.

The ministry will invest more than $10 million to support a range of intervention, after-care and secure-care services.

"Parents have been frustrated that we cannot protect our children when they put themselves at risk of great harm," said Diane Sowden of the Children of the Street Society. "I'm pleased to see this is going to change."

Under the act, a parent, guardian or the director of secure care will be able to apply to the board to have a child taken into secure care for up to 30 days. In exceptional circumstances, this period may be extended. In emergencies authorities will have the power to take immediate action to ensure the safety of a young person by detaining them for up to 72 hours for assessment and arrangement of treatment and support services.

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For more information please contact: Ministry for Children and Families, Communications Branch Tel: (250) 387-2023 Fax: (250) 356-3007