British Columbia

For more information, see the information sheet British Columbia's child welfare system.

Overview

In British Columbia, the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) provides child welfare services under the mandate of the Child, Family and Community Service Act (1996). The Child, Family, and Community Service Act (1996) was amended in 2018 to improve child welfare service delivery and intervention for Indigenous children and families, with the goal of reducing the over-representation of Indigenous children and youth within the province’s child welfare system.

Child protection services in British Columbia are provided through 429 ministry offices in 13 regions and 24 delegated Aboriginal agencies, which have varying levels of delegated responsibility according to the resources and capacity of each agency (Government of British Columbia, 2021). The Federal government is responsible for funding services to First Nations children and families living on-reserve. The Adoption Act (1996), Infants Act (1996), and the Representative for Children and Youth Act (2006), are other legal acts that relate to the well-being and protection of children in British Columbia.

Statistics

British Columbia: Children and youth in out-of-home care in 2022¹
Children in out-of-home care	Child (0-18) population	Rate per 1000
10, 462	926,027	11.30

Statistics Links

Ministry of Children and Family Development Reporting Portal

Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities, making it difficult to compile statistics at the national level.

The most notable variations between provinces include, mandate variation by jurisdiction with respect to the age to which children are eligible for service, differences in the length of time a child can receive out-of-home care and the definition of out-of-home care.

References

¹ Pollock, N., Ouédraogo, A., Trocmé, N., Hovdestad, W., Miskie, A., Crompton, L., Campeau, A., Tanaka, M., Zhang, C., Laprise, C., Tonmyr, L. (2024). Original quantitative research – Rates of out-of-home care among children in Canada: an analysis of national administrative child welfare data. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada (44)4. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.44.4.02.

Publications

Title	Authors	Year
Critical Injuries and Deaths: Reviews and Investigations Update #20	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
Critical Injuries and Deaths: Reviews and Investigations Update #21	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
Critical Injuries and Deaths: Reviews and Investigations Update #22	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
High prevalence of exposure to the child welfare system among street-involved youth in a Canadian setting: Implications for policy and practice	Barker, Brittany Kerr, Thomas Alfred, Gerald Taiaiake Fortin, Michelle Nguyen, Paul Wood, Evan DeBeck, Kora	2014
Lost in the Shadows: How a Lack of Help Meant a Loss of Hope for One First Nations Girl	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
Not Fully Invested - A Follow-up Report on the Representative’s Past Recommendations to Help Vulnerable Children in B.C.	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
On Their Own: Examining the Needs of B.C. Youth as They Leave Government Care	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2014
Out of Sight: How One Aboriginal Child’s Best Interests Were Lost Between Two Provinces	British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth	2013
Review of Family Care Models, Wilderness Challenge, and Community Group Homes	Brodersen, Etta Urquhart, Taryn Pankatz, Courtney Viljoen, Jodi	2013
The role of child protection in cannabis grow-operations	Douglas, Janet Sullivan, Richard	2013

Legislation

Links