Letter: Sharon Gregson, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC; The Times

I agree with your editorial [Aug. 2, 2012] that investment into a B.C. affordable child care system would be good for the economy and good for all of us. Subsequent letters to the editor saying that high income earners should cut back on expenses totally misses the mark.

We don’t stop people from accessing the library to borrow free books or charge them extra to go to the local swimming pool based on their pay cheque size.

The same applies to our education system … every child is entitled to access Kindergarten when they are five years old, no matter how much money their dad makes at work. Child care should be the same way too-and there is a return on the child care investment-more tax revenue to government when more parents are able to go to work.

Bottom line is that 70 per cent of mothers are in the workforce, but we only have enough child care for 20 per cent of kids, and what we do have is too expensive and often not high enough quality. Canada currently rates last of all industialized countries for our investment into early care and learning. We can do better-if we mean it that kids are our most important resource-then let’s show it by investing in the $10 a day child care plan.