Harper's plan ignores the realities of child care
Letter to Editor, Vancouver Sun
By Nicky Byres, Richmond
April 20, 2006

Re: Harper affirms commitment to child-care plan, April 19

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's whirlwind stop in B.C. to re-announce his so-called child-care plan once again showed his unwillingness to deal with the reality of most parents in this province. He couldn't bring himself to darken the door of an actual child-care centre or family child-care home where children of working or studying parents (that's 75 per cent of us with children under the age 12, by the way) are cared for in developmentally appropriate, caring and interesting environments.

This isn't free child care and it's barely subsidized as it is. Parents bear the fee burden for the most part and if Harper had happened to drop into one of the few Vancouver area group licensed infant centres he would have found out his child-care allowance would buy one month of care; $100 a month is not a child care program, it's an income supplement.