What is the government doing to childcare?
Robson Valley Times
May 10, 2006
By Jennifer Quam
EXCERPT

Never before have I questioned a move by the federal government as I question to one they are making to scrap the bilateral childcare agreement and take away daycare subsides to families and children.

In the Conservative government's budget plan released last week they made their formal plan to scrap a $5 billion childcare program and replace it with a $1,200 taxable parental allowance.

This idea to me is ludicrous since the Liberal government just last year had put into place a bilateral childcare agreement with almost all the provinces that provided more funding for daycares and lowered the income threshold that determines a family's eligibility for daycare subsidy.

Let face it daycares are expense, a family with two children under the age of six are looking at approximately $7 and hour in daycare fees in the Robson Valley.

If a parent is working for minimum wage it would seem ridiculous to be working.

If I am to understand the Conservatives government's plan it is to force at least one parent to stay home with their children, or the parent in single parent families in a dictatorship way of pushing their own family values onto society.

I don't buy into this at all. I am sure that if you talk to every parent they would love to stay home but in this day and age it is not economical feasible for some families not to have dual incomes. What are the single parent families to do, sit on welfare?

Daycare subsidies help parents pay a portion of the daycare fees based on their income and provide the parents the opportunity to be independent income earners and have a sense of identity.

This amount will only pay for approximately three and half days of licensed childcare a month.

As a previous licensed childcare provider I know the benefits that quality childcare provides for children. It has been proven in study after study that children who attend preschool programs are better prepared when entering kindergarten.

I would hate for licensed childcare centres in Valemount and McBride be forced to close because of this decision by the federal government and the money they are directly taking away from families and daycare facilities.

Why do the Tories feel it is more important to build new prisons than provide the youth and future leaders of the country with licensed quality childcare?