If anyone ever wondered why this Ministry is a non-stop disaster, there's your explanation right there. For the past five years, the "day to day running" of MCFD has been (and continues to be) seen as a low level task to be fobbed off to the minions, while the big brains focus on the "real" job of trying to dismantle it.

Was Lesley not brought to British Columbia to lead and oversee the transformation and regionalization process?

If that is the case, shouldn't her focus be on doing that properly? And if that means bringing in a senior ministry executive to oversee the day to day operations of the ministry, is that not positive?

If anything, I think this underlines that Lesley and the ministry want to ensure that while transformation occurs, other ministry priorities don't suffer. That is good news.

It is truly remarkable to observe the continuing drama at the Ministry of Chaotic and Frustrating Developments. Ms du Toit certainly has acquired a very nice gig whereby she has effectively seconded herself into a position that should be subordinate to the DM.

In addition the new COO position drains resources that could be used more effectively elsewhere.

This may very well be a sign that she is not up to the job of DM and is on the way out, but it would be too embarrassing for the government to pay severance so early in her tenure.

Onlooker has apparently not been watching MCFD for very long. The current Deputy and her new senior executives are just the latest lot to pass through the MCFD revolving door for a stint of focussing on the Premier's never-ending transformation and regionalization process while delegating "day to day running" to the back burner. Sorry, no news there.

They've been doing just that -- transforming and regionalizing while downplaying "day to day running" for over five years and they've accomplished little or nothing that's positive, along with a whole lot of disaster and change for the sake of change. Just take a look at the flagship of regionalization and transformation, CLBC, to see what I mean.

At a certain point, the sane response is to acknowledge that the approach isn't working and to consider something else. That assumes, of course, that your goal is to make MCFD succeed, and that the whole point of endless transformation isn't to divert attention from your reluctance and/or failure to live up to the mandate in the first place (in which case it makes perfect sense).

I agree that this could be "good news" but ONLY IF Ms Knox was charged by Ms du Toit with decision making responsibilities and then respects those decisions. Despite her mantra about giving up power and control which, she does not - to my mind - model that herself, somebody with experience needs to be in charge of the day to day activities of MCFD. By that I mean LEADERSHIP experience which includes trusting staff rather than what we have seen so far.....

Has she created anything over the past 8 months other than fear? The day to day work of MCFD and the transformation she was hired to facilitate cannot and will not be accomplished in the current environment of fear and mistrust.

The bottom line is that, in my opinion, Ms du Toit has created nothing but confusion and chaos at MCFD. Rather than recognizing that there are MCFD staff aross the province who already shared her expressed vision about how one should work and who practice that vision every day, her behaviour since joining MCFD leaves us all wondering what she is really all about.

Words are just words until you actually live them. We have seen little of that from Ms du Toit.

Well now that I have just hired two new ADM's to do my job for me I can finally play the "role" of the unapproachable overlord who can do no wrong.

That way I can blame them and everyone else but myself the next time there is a major screw up at MCFD.

This, in spite of the fact that: "In managing their responsibilities, Deputy Ministers may delegate certain authorities, but the delegation of authority does not relieve the delegator of responsibility or accountability. Deputy Ministers are also charged with creating an environment that fosters continuous learning and openness as they address administrative problems which may arise. When errors occur, the Deputy Minister remains responsible to act quickly and openly in seeking out the causes and identifying appropriate measures to prevent recurrence and improve management practices." Source: Gov't of Canada, Privy Council Office

Dawn Steele is correct. One only has to look at the promotion to ADM of an individual who was directly involved in the transformation of the failed CLBC to know where she and the premier are going with mcfd.

The "brains" Dawn Steele refers to are not in the office of the premier, nor are they in the office of the deputy minister.

This premier and this deputy minister care nothing for families and children.