Lyster pans child-care plan: Tories will give parents too little cash and not enough care, says local executive director of community resources
Penticton Herald, 12 Apr 2006
By Mark Brett
EXCERPT

It is the children who will suffer if Prime Minister Stephen Harper follows through with plans to scrap the Liberal's child-care program, according to the executive director of the Penticton and District Community Resources Society.

"I think that's (cancelling the federal-provincial agreements) a sorry excuse for establishing a national child-care program that says that children matter and that the health and well-being of children are paramount," said Kim Lyster, whose agency operates a number of day-care centres in the community.

"It's certainly not a viable alternative to what the Liberals proposed. This is a very harsh alternative, and it doesn't address the needs of the majority of the families, the working poor and the modest income. "You can't buy child care if there isn't child care available."...

Instead, the Tories are committed to going ahead with their election promise to give families $1,200 a year for each child under six. Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Stockwell Day said Monday the purpose of the money is to provide parents a wider range of options.

"This is done to allow for choice in child care," said Day. "It broadens the choice from only institutional, nine-to-five care to people who want to have their kids raised at home and not be financially punished for it.

"It also gives people who have different situations different choices. It's very positive."

He added that discussions are underway with not-for-profit groups and businesses to encourage them to work with the government to create up to 25,000 day-care spaces annually in the coming years.

"The federal Liberals had 13 years to come up with a universal day-care program and they never did, until the last year, just before the election. They signed agreements with only three provinces -- and those were only one-year agreements so there was no plan at all," said the MP.

"We do have a plan, and it's going to provide choice and increased number of child-care spaces across the country."

According to the society director, the biggest concern is for the well- being of the children and that limited financial compensation will not go far enough in addressing many parents' child care needs.

"If families just have money in their pockets and they're scrambling to find a child-care provider, that could be any range of styles of child care, from unlicensed people who are doing it out of their homes and are very good through to people who are doing it out of their homes but who are not very good," she said.

"And a very young child is not going to necessarily be able to report concerns they are having about a child-care provider.

"The worse possible thing is that it could mean more children home alone because parents need to work."

The executive director added it puts the onus on the families of children in day care to do most of the monitoring of those facilities. She believes Harper should re-visit his decision about the Liberal plan, adding that the $1,200 -- especially if it is taxed -- will not work out to be much money for low-income earners, especially single parents.

"It's creating child-care allowances, which are really just a child benefit program, and it will go to all families regardless of their child care needs," said Lyster.

"I'm not confident that it's necessarily going to create more spaces, and that's a very, very significant need. There's a lack of spaces." The society is in the process of expanding its facilities, and while the doors to the new centre are not even open yet, the 12 additional spaces are already filled.

"That's how serious the need is," said Lyster. "We get calls from parents all the time struggling to find quality, licensed child care and it's just not available. "In the same way we want a comprehensive, accessible health-care system, we need a comprehensive, accessible child-care program."