B.C.'s child watchdog called for changes to foster care 3 years ago. What's changed?

The B.C. government says more resources, staff and funds have been provided to the foster care system in the three years since B.C.'s child and youth advocate issued a report into the death of Alex Gervais, the Abbotsford teen who took his own life.

In his 2017 report entitled Broken Promises,  Bernard Richard found the Ministry of Children and Family Development repeatedly failed Gervais while he was in care, detailing how the province put him up at a hotel in Abbotsford when he was 18 and paid a caregiver $8,000 a month to look after him.

The caregiver, however, didn't visit Gervais once in the 10 days before he jumped from his hotel window to his death.

The report also found the ministry never attempted to place Gervais, who was Métis, with his aunt in Quebec or his stepmother in B.C.

Instead, he was shuffled through 17 different placements and 23 social workers.

One of the few times Gervais had stability in his life is when he was in the care of Allen Hoolaeff from ages 11 to 17.

"I'm still really affected by his death," Hoolaeff said. "I wish I could have done more."

The MCFD sent CBC News a two page email outlining improvements that have been made to the foster care system since the report was released.

Hoolaeff says the ministry has taken some positive steps but more action is needed.

"It would be great to snap my fingers and see all the kids in care receive better lives," he said. "The problem with the government is things go so slow."

What's changed?

The report called for the MCFD to give proper support to children in care who couldn't return to their birth families, more resources for social workers to find appropriate placements and address the mental health needs of youth.

The ministry says that by providing parenting classes, mental health and addictions support and counselling, it is now able to safely return 91 percent of children who've been placed in the care of the province to their families.

The province has also hired more staff and social workers, raised compensation rates for foster parents and consulted with First Nations across B.C. to reduce the number of Indigenous youths in provincial care.

Judy Fox-Mcguire, who is with the B.C. Government Employees Union, which represents social workers, says many of her members are still burned out.

"They don't have time to do all the checks and balances that they want to do, so they're always in triage mode," she said. "The decisions they make are so important and they need the time to make those decisions."

The province has also banned the practice of placing youths in hotels, unless there is an emergency.

Between April 2017 and April 2018, which is the most recent data available, 37 youths were placed in hotel rooms, according to the B.C. government.

More than half of those placements were due to wildfires.

Remembering Alex

The report describes how Gervais was abused, suffered from anxiety and depression and struggled with attachment issues, but Hoolaeff says there was much more to him.

Hoolaeff remembers Gervais as someone who carefully crafted gourmet sandwiches, was mechanically inclined and loved his friends.

He also remembers an insecure kid with a love for nice clothes who spent hours at the gym until his muscles matched the size of his heart.

"He just wanted the best of the best so that he could show his friends he was worth something," he said. "Because, I think, deep inside he didn't feel that way."