Proceedings in the
Douglas Fir Room

The House in Committee, Section A.

The committee met at 11:32 a.m.

[Jennifer Blatherwick in the chair.]

Committee of Supply

Estimates: Ministry of
Social Development and Poverty Reduction
(continued)

The Chair: Good morning, Members. I call the Committee of Supply, Section A, back to order. We are meeting today to continue the consideration of the budget estimates of the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

On Vote 43: ministry operations, $5,747,116,000 (continued).

Kristina Loewen: We’ll continue asking questions. I was on the category of executive and support services and overhead.

Is the ministry tracking internal productivity metrics for executive and support services? If so, can the minister table performance indicators for that division and whether it is meeting them?

[11:35 a.m.]

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: As we were describing yesterday, the executive and support services kind of category or line item is actually distributed amongst almost everything that touches ministry service delivery. So the performance metrics are on the actual delivery of service that the member described yesterday — wait times, and how long does it take to answer a phone? Did everybody get their cheques on time? How quickly is an application for PWD processed?

The activity that’s happening in the executive and support services line that the member describes is not like a single team; it’s part of almost every team. It’s basically the back office that supports everything that ministry delivers, so it’s all policy, all finance, freedom of information, deputy minister’s office — everything that supports the front line.

Kristina Loewen: What exactly is the public getting for the extra $2.5 million in overhead spending since 2022-2023? Please provide a breakdown of new staff positions, salaries and contracts under this line item.

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: That’s also something that we’ll undertake to provide in writing. We don’t have the data from those years and, certainly, are very happy to provide for the member the different operating conditions and environments between those two years, between that big gap in time.

Kristina Loewen: Can the minister table all external consulting contracts awarded under executive and support services since 2021? Please include vendor, value, purpose and justification.

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: That’s all public information, so we’re happy to point the member to where she can see it online.

[11:40 a.m.]

Kristina Loewen: How many staff in the division earn over $100,000 annually? Please table a breakdown of compensation levels for all management-level positions in executive and supportive services.

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: That’s also all publicly available, all published online, and we’re happy to provide a link for the member.

Kristina Loewen: Given the need to target limited funds to those most in need, will the minister commit to capping executive and support services spending in 2025-26 at 2022-23 levels and redirecting surplus to front-line benefits instead?

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: As the member knows, executive compensation is set by the Public Service Agency and not by my ministry. The member could take this up with the Minister of Finance during estimates.

Kristina Loewen: Does the minister believe that the ministry is achieving better results for the public with this larger administrative apparatus? Given the minister’s budget review mandate, will she commit to a full audit of executive and support services to identify functions that could be consolidated or eliminated?

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: Without accepting the premise of the member’s question and also noting that we have a lot of planning and policy work built into the ministry that did not exist before the NDP took government in 2017….

For example, B.C. was the last place in the country to have a plan to tackle poverty. We’ve now developed two, and we push and work across government to make sure that every ministry has investing in people to combat poverty as part of their central work. So the first part of the question — I don’t accept the premise.

But absolutely — and the member knows it’s written into my mandate letter, as it is in every minister’s mandate letter — we are looking at every part of our operations to find efficiencies, to make sure that spending is focused on making the biggest impact on the lives of British Columbians. The focus of looking at every program and the way that we deliver it and who delivers it is all about focusing on outcomes for people.

We will be working also…. Protecting and strengthening critical services is my commitment and also the instruction in my mandate letter.

Kristina Loewen: I’m going to ask a couple questions about HEART and HEARTH programs. Can the minister confirm how many people SDPR supported with income or disability assistance under the HEART or HEARTH programs in the 2023-24 fiscal year? What percentage of encampment residents were successfully linked to financial supports?

[11:45 a.m.]

Hon. Sheila Malcolmson: Thank you to the member for giving me the opportunity to talk about our community integration specialists, because they are gems.

The HEART and HEARTH program is administered by the Minister of Housing, so I’m not going to be able to give the member the numbers about HEART and HEARTH outcomes that she was asking for. But I’m sure that the Housing Minister would be happy to provide that.

But let me take the opportunity to talk about the element that SDPR provides to the HEART and HEARTH work. For the benefit of the public, or at least my parents who I think are watching, we as a ministry have returned outreach workers as a way to connect people who have become alienated from service and are, in this case, without housing.

Community integration specialists go and meet people where they are. We had a team…. At the time that we adopted the homelessness strategy in British Columbia, when the Premier was at that time the AG and the Housing Minister, there were 73 community integration specialists. We now have 187, in every corner of the province.

They provide expedited intakes for income and PWD assistance. They receive shelter and health requests so that they then work with those teams to connect people with supports. They do case management, homelessness outreach, coordinate housing inspections, referrals and inquiries from community partners, coordination of services. They are embedded in Aboriginal friendship centres, in every corner of the province, and drop-in centres or in OPS. It could be anywhere that people that have been alienated from services and are without housing might be.

We have more than doubled the number of CIS specialists already. They have successfully distributed encampment fire suppression equipment, in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, B.C. Housing and the Ministry of Public Safety, and have also been really important to attach people to the ReVOII team and also the coordinated access and assessment tables that connect people with housing.

With that, I move that the committee rise and report progress and ask leave to sit again.

Motion approved.

The Chair: This committee stands adjourned.

The committee rose at 11:49 a.m.