SOCIAL WORKERS WORRY ABOUT GROW-OP KIDS

Question Criteria Used To Investigate

The B.C. Association of Social Workers is calling on the province to
show how it deals with children taken from marijuana grow operations.

The appeal follows the Dec. 11 removal of three children under the age
of 12 from an Abbotsford grow-op that had dangerously high levels of
carbon monoxide.

The children were put into the care of the Ministry of Children and
Family Development.

Children were also found in a Richmond home in August after police
recovered more than 1,100 plants in the home.

Two children, aged two and four, belonging to realtor Tammy Wing Yan
Tsui and her husband, Clement Kin Keung, were put into the care of the
ministry, along with three children who were visiting.

A second grow operation had no one living inside.

According to the B.C. Association of Social Workers, there is no way
to determine if children from drug houses are being properly protected
or if the ministry has provided sufficient guidance to its
child-protection social workers.

The association wants transparency when it comes to what criteria are
applied by social workers conducting commercial grow-op
child-protection investigations, and how marijuana grow-op children
are kept safe by the child-protection system beyond the initial
investigation and response.

Association spokesman Paul Jenkinson said vague generalities, such as
every situation being "unique," don't build confidence in the
child-protection system.

Minister of Children and Family Development Tom Christensen was
unavailable for comment, but a ministry spokeswoman said there is a
clear policy for social workers to follow: the Child, Family and
Community Service Act.

She said the act gives social workers a broad mandate and there are no
plans to change it.

"One set of circumstances shouldn't be treated differently from any
other," she said. "Front-line workers will determine the risk to the
child, based on the situation, and act accordingly to make sure the
child is protected.

"It's the social worker's obligation to determine if the environment
is harmful to the child and determine if the child is in need of
protection."

The spokeswoman said the ministry receives and responds to more than
30,000 child-protection reports across B.C. in any given year.

The ministry doesn't track what kind of situation each child comes
from. "They're all unique circumstances, so it would be hard to
classify them," she said.