The teenager who died in B.C. government care last week wasn’t the only youth being housed in a hotel, the Ministry of Children and Family Development has confirmed.
Minister Stephanie Cadieux said the second youth was discovered during an investigation into the death of 18-year-old Alex Gervais, who fell from the fourth floor of a Super 8 hotel in Abbotsford last Friday in what his friends believe was a suicide.
“We’ve now found there is one other circumstance,” Cadieux told CTV News. “Although we weren’t aware, and that’s not OK, the circumstance is appropriate at this time."
The youth currently staying in a hotel is not considered at-risk and is only there temporarily, Cadieux added. No further details can be released due to privacy concerns.
Cadieux said the province wasn't informed about either youth being placed in a hotel, even though ministry staff was advised last year to get approval before setting up any such arrangements.
Gervais was moved to the Super 8 after the group home he was living in closed; it's unclear how long he'd been staying there before he died.
“I am angered by that, I am frustrated by that and I am very saddened for the fact that this young man has lost his life and there are people grieving,” Cadieux said.
The second case was found in the initial stages of a province-wide review triggered in the wake of Gervais’s death, and Cadieux said there could be more.
The minister said she’s told her deputy and the provincial director that “action will need to be taken.”
NDP opposition leader John Horgan told CTV News the province has lost control of the foster system, and that someone needs to be held accountable.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development's official policy is to place children and youths in foster homes and group homes with the intention of minimizing moves.
Hotels are only to be used in rare circumstances for brief periods in between placements.
Former care worker Tania Fiolleau said a hotel is no place for a troubled teen, but people working in B.C.’s underfunded system are forced to cut corners.
It's worst for the oldest children, she said, adding that there is an attitude that workers can "run down the clock" and not deal with problems while the youths "age out" of the system.
“The kids need help. They’re not getting the proper care,” Fiolleau said.
Gervais’s friends said social workers should have known he was struggling with suicidal thoughts, and that he even posted a goodbye message on social media earlier this year.
His case isn't the first to put the ministry under fire this year. Over the summer, a report blamed the province for an aboriginal teen’s death, and a court ruling found staff failed to protect young siblings who were sexually abused by their father.
With a report from CTV Vancovuer’s Jon Woodward
