British Columbia ombudsperson Jay Chalke says he鈥檚 satisfied the provincial government has fixed a problem that shortchanged caregivers of children with disabilities by nearly $1.2 million in federal funding.

But Chalke said Thursday that B.C. still hasn鈥檛 responded to his recommendation from three years ago that it work with Ottawa to fix other systemic inequities in federal legislation.

He said the legislation still denies access to some benefits for extended family members looking after children with disabilities through provincial kinship care agreements.

Chalke鈥檚 office released a report in 2022 that found the monthly federal child disability benefit, intended to help care for disabled children, was being kept in the province鈥檚 coffers instead of being passed on to those with a kinship care agreement with the province.

鈥淜inship caregivers like grandparents 鈥� were not actually receiving the child disability benefit. Instead, the federal government was paying the provincial government this payment, and the province was depositing those funds into provincial general revenue,鈥� Chalke told reporters Thursday.

鈥淭his is because under the relevant federal legislation, the federal government doesn鈥檛 recognize the role or responsibilities of kinship caregivers, but instead considers the province to be maintaining the child.鈥�

An update to the 2022 report, published Thursday, says the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development has since transferred payments of nearly $1.2 million to 251 eligible caregivers as of the end of April 2024, to cover the shortfall retroactive to April 2019.

Chalke said his office decided to recommend payments be retroactive to 2019 because that is when the province was first made aware of the problem but chose to do nothing about it.

鈥淓ssentially, the province was enriching itself at the expense of these families,鈥� he said.

Chalke said the B.C. government has also ensured an amount equal to the federal benefit, about $264 per month per child, is now paid to kinship caregivers of children with disabilities on an ongoing basis.

He said despite this specific problem being resolved, other inequities persist because of the federal position that the province is 鈥渕aintaining鈥� a child being cared for by extended family under a kinship agreement.

Kinship caregivers cannot claim the disability tax credit on their tax return the way other families can, Chalke noted.

鈥淭his is a disadvantage for all kinship caregiver families, but particularly for those who are on limited or fixed incomes. That鈥檚 why I recommended that the ministry work with its federal counterparts to meaningfully address these ongoing inequities,鈥� he said.

鈥淐hildren should not be disadvantaged because of the way in which their care arrangements are structured. I鈥檓 disappointed to report that the ministry has made no progress on this last recommendation.鈥�

No one from the Ministry of Children and Family Development was immediately available to comment on Chalke鈥檚 recommendations.

Chalke said in a statement that the province鈥檚 failure to work with the federal government 鈥減erpetuates inequitable treatment of these children.鈥�

鈥淢y office will continue to monitor its progress on this remaining recommendation and will report publicly until we are satisfied that it has been successfully implemented,鈥� he said.