Budget's child-care funds on the brink
Times Colonist (Victoria, BC)
03 Feb 2006 [Page: A3]
Jeff Rud

More than $500 million in child-care funding promised to B.C. by the outgoing federal Liberal government is in serious jeopardy, but the province is still hoping it will materialize.

B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor said her Feb. 21 budget will factor in the $633 million committed by Paul Martin's government as part of a five-year child-care deal signed with the province last September.

However, only the first year of the deal, or $92 million, has been actually guaranteed by Ottawa and indications are that prime minister-designate Stephen Harper will implement the Conservatives' distinctly different child-care plan for the years following.

Under the federal Liberal plan, the funds were to go directly to the province. The B.C. government was scheduled Tuesday to unveil a detailed action plan for how it would use those funds, but that announcement didn't happen.

Instead, B.C. Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid said the deadline was extended and that the province will wait for Harper to name his cabinet Monday to address the issue.

Taylor said her budget will take into account the situation. "We are just continuing with the budgeting as planned but we will identify it within the fiscal plan as a risk and just explain that there is some uncertainty with the change in federal government,'' she said.

"There's a great deal of uncertainty around the child-care program in these early stages so we are waiting until the cabinet is named so we will know whom to speak to about this.''…

When asked whether Harper's plan would scuttle the previous federal promise, Reid said: "I think that frankly it would be wonderful to see him do both.''

But provincial NDP Leader Carole James said Premier Gordon Campbell's government should be making a strong case to Ottawa to retain the entire promised funding.

James said the B.C. Liberal government has cut $40 million from its own child care spending since taking power in 2001 and has been using federal funding to back-fill those cuts. Now with promised federal funding in doubt, so is child care, she said.

"I think the premier and his ministers should be out there saying to the Conservative government: 'These are important dollars. Here's our plan and our direction and here's how we can support people with it. Where are the resources and what's your commitment?'.'' James said…

Taylor said child-care funding is the biggest question for the B.C. government when it comes to the federal change. Promises for pine beetle funding and the Pacific gateway strategy seem to be supported by the Conservatives. "For the most part, we are just assuming that it's business as usual.''