Home alone age debate

By Elissa Carpenter

KELOWNA — A Kelowna man says he went from being perceived as a law-abiding dad to neglectful parent overnight.

Martin Solotki shares custody with his ex-wife. It means two nights a week, his daughters stay home in his basement apartment while he goes to work. There are adults in the upper suite if his daughters have an emergency.

Solotki checked the law before deciding he could leave the girls alone.

“They’re asleep before I leave,” Says Solotki. “The oldest one also has her babysitter ticket and the home alone course and she is very mature for her age”

The Okanagan dad admits the situation wasn’t ideal. It also wasn’t against the law.

“Surprisingly, there is no legislation in B.C. that sets out the minimum age requirement to leave a child at home alone,” says Vancouver lawyer Gurinder Bains.

Last week a BC Supreme Court Justice ruled an eight-year-old boy in Terrace was too young to be left unsupervised after school. Solotki says the same day the ruling came down, his daughters were taken from his home by their mother, on the advice of a social worker.

“It came down at around 1:30 Thursday afternoon or so, and by 8:30 at night a social worker decided my kids needed to be removed from my home,” says Solotki.

The Ministry of Child and Family Development can’t comment on specific cases but says in B.C. the age of 12 is used as a guideline for when children are old enough to stay alone.
Less than 24 hours after his daughters were removed from his home, they were returned to his custody. He has agreed to have them supervised while he works until his eldest turns 12 in about five months.

He says he is telling his story as a warning to other parents that despite the law being a grey area, parents using their own discretion could find themselves in the same trouble he was in.