B.C. has enjoyed the services of a lot of independent Officers of the Legislature - Ombudsman, Privacy Commissioner, Auditor-General etc - but none have made their mark quite like the one who leaves her post this week.
Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond is stepping aside as the Representative of Children and Youth after nearly a decade at the helm, and to say it's been a rocky ride is putting it mildly.
She has proved to be unflinching in her criticism of government and relentless in her demands for change to better improve the plight of children, particularly those in care of the government.
Turpel-Lafond has clashed with cabinet ministers, front-line social workers, First Nations care agencies, and retired deputy ministers over the years. Her tenacity is unquestioned, although some have questioned whether her often abrasive, confrontational approach was always effective.
In fact, it has been argued whether much concrete progress was made in the past few months, as the relationship between her office and the Children and Family Development Ministry seemed to deteriorate badly in the wake of her harsh criticism of its handling of a child custody case.
But even that does not detract from the fact that for almost 10 years she held government's feet to the fire in ways that produced change and highlighted gaps in the system.
She produced 90 reports containing more than 200 recommendations, and close to three-quarters of them have been implemented. It's been a grinding job - she jokes her hair went from brown to white during her tenure - and that takes an emotional toll, but Turpel-Lafond has stuck with it longer than originally expected (she is serving her second term).
Still, for all her success, it begs the question of whether things have really improved all that much. In fact, in her exit interview with me for Global B.C. recently, I asked her to assign a letter grade to the government's performance when she first took office and one as she leaves the office.
She says the government has gone from a "D" grade to a mere "C" one.
"They (the government) have moved up," she told me. "It has taken 10 years and it's been tough. But I have seen some good work. I think we have changed the culture and British Columbians know more about how the system really works and they expect to know the details."
Still, she is not confident things will continue to improve in any significant way. A big problem, from her perspective, is a chronic lack of resources.
"I do worry about the future. Will we have a public service in the future. There are offices that have been emergency staffed for decades and they have never taken steps to pay them appropriately, to recruit and retain. It is a drop in the bucket," she said.
She did single out one minister - Mary McNeil, who chose not to seek re-election in 2013 - for particular praise and credited her with essentially rebuilding the ministry. She said McNeil was "remarkable," a word she doesn't use when talking about other cabinet ministers she's dealt with.
"Things slowed down after Mary left. When you are privileged to work with great ministers who love the topic it's good," she told me. "Minister (Stephanie) Cadieux has been good work on the issues we see eye-to-eye on like adoption. But government often feels quite allergic to oversight and they do want to treat an independent officer as a member of the opposition at times."
When she started the job, there were about 10,000 kids in care, and now there are 7,000, but the number still needs to be much lower she says.
"My estimate is we should be down to only 3,000 kids in care. So there are another 4,000 to go. That's going to take a lot of work, good oversight and a budget," she said.
She handled about 17,000 cases in her time, and she says the office has about 50 to 200 cases a day that require immediate attention.
Indeed, the many problems that exist in the child welfare system seem so vast and often overwhelming, but they are undoubtedly fewer in number as a result of Turpel-Lafond's work.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
