The family of a 15-year-old boy who died in government care is dropping a lawsuit against the province nearly two years after it was filed.
Peter Lang’s son Nick died in 2015, just days after being checked into a Campbell River drug treatment facility.
Lang and Nick’s mother Linda Tenpas filed the suit in March 2016, alleging a long list of errors that played a role in their son’s death, including a lack of supervision.
On Monday, Lang told Global News the lawsuit had always been centered on making changes in the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) and ensuring enough resources were being dedicated to youth mental health and addiction.
WATCH: Damning report into 15-year-old Nick Lang’s drug death.
Lang said problems persist, but with a new government in place, he believes positive change is now on the way.
“We’re on the right course, but that could change with an election, and if that’s the case we may regret that we withdrew this,” Lang said.
“For now, I think the best progress will be made withdrawing the lawsuit and removing that impediment so that we can at least speak freely with the minister, with everybody else about what we can do to make the system better.”
WATCH: Another family says child under BC gov’t care died
Lang said the case had also become a charter challenge, after he received a letter from the province’s lawyer in the summer that he said argued his son had no constitutional rights because he was dead.
“We disagreed with that, and we thought there was some new jurisprudence to support that. We felt that we would have won the case,” he said.
“Where does that put us? Does that help any youth get access to resources between now and then? No, not really,” he said.
Lang said he and Tenpas intend to keep advocating for resources for youth and to keep more of them out of the government care system.
Nick Lang was found dead in a closet on June 9, 2015 with a shoelace around his neck, six days after he was placed in the care of the MCFD.
The placement was meant to be temporary, while he underwent government-funded treatment for a methamphetamine addiction at the Vancouver Island facility.
In October 2016, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth released a report into Nick’s death, finding the province needed to fund and create more substance abuse programs for youth.
Nick was Metis, and the report also found that his parents were “unable to access suitable, culturally-specific services to help address their youngest son’s escalating drug abuse problem.”