Ministry of Children and
Family Development
Assistant Deputy Miniter’s
Office
PO Box 9722 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria BC V8W 9S2
Telephone: 250 387-3006
Facsimile: 250 356-0311
May 25, 2006
To:
Executive and members of the BC Federation of Foster Parent Associations
Thanks you for your very kind invitation to attend this year’s annual general meeting. I
regret that I am not there to join you in celebrating the fostering program. As you may know,
my continued recovery from last year’s car accident has meant that I have had to curtail
most travel as prolonged sitting continues to be a problem for me. On that note – the
accident, that is, not the sitting, I want to express my sincere thanks to the BCFFPA for the
beautiful pot of flowers you sent me to speed my recovery along ! I can tell you the plants are
still thriving and I think of your kindness every time I water them.
I am also writing to congratulate the Board and members of the Federation on what I believe
to be a very successful couple of years. The leadership of Sheila Durnford and the Board has
been clearly instrumental in rebuilding the organization. You have managed to recover from
some significant downturns and to do so in a spirit of partnership.
Both the change in leadership and the stability of the Board are strengths of which you
should all be very proud. I am delighted that you have found ways to value and treasure the
contributions of long time members. The strength of the BCFFPA has always been in your
very practical and straightforward way of solving problems. These are, naturally, also the
strengths of the very many fine individual foster parents in their day to day care of children.
In closing, I want to pay special tribute to Sheila Durnford. Sheila has been a tireless
advocate for foster parents for many years. Her contributions in public and behind the
scenes are too numerous to mention. During my term as Director of Child Welfare, Sheila
was never afraid to call me on things she thought I could do better or needed to fix. At the
same time, Sheila was also very willing to be supportive and to seek answers before passing
judgement. Being on the Board of a non-profit and democratic organization can be a
thankless task and I want to express my admiration for Sheila’s dedication and commitment.
Please accept my very best wishes for the AGM. I also want to extend congratulations to the
incoming Board and thanks for taking on such an important job on behalf of B.C.’s foster
parents !
Sincerely,
Jeremy Berland
Assistant Deputy Minister
