Child-care rally Tuesday: Parents and childcare centre staff call on province to do more
Times Colonist (Victoria)
13 May 2006
By: Jeff Rud
EXCERPT

Several child-care centres across lower Vancouver Island are planning to close early on Tuesday so that staff, parents and their children can attend a rally at the B.C. legislature.

Our Children Count, beginning at 1 p.m., is designed to deliver two messages to the provincial government: Make a concrete plan for child care; and stand up to the new federal government for scrapping a deal that would have sent $633 million B.C.'s way over a five-year period.

"We would like B.C. to start to make a commitment to a long-term plan for child care,'' said Enid Elliot, chairwoman for the Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council.

Governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec have each spoken out against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's axing of the former Liberal government's ambitious national child-care plan, Elliot said. "But B.C.'s been very quiet.''

Linda Reid, B.C. minister of state for child care, disagrees. She said B.C. was quick to talk with federal Human Resources and Social Development Minister Diane Finley and that the province will continue to advocate "fiercely" in Ottawa. "We are not silent on this question,'' she said.

"What they're really protesting is their agitation over the federal government and [its] commitment to end the five-year childcare program,'' Reid added.

The federal Conservative government has agreed to fund the former Liberal government's national child-care program over its first two years, sending B.C. a total of $178 million. But the program is dead after that...

Reid said B.C. will be aggressive in taking advantage of that fund. She hopes to find out details during this month's federal-provincial-territorial meetings in Ottawa.

Elliot said B.C. needs a solid plan of its own to provide options for parents for day care, preschool, early-childhood education and child-minding services. Most licensed operations in Greater Victoria have significant waiting lists, leaving many parents scrambling to find any services, she said. A recent report done by the council shows most programs have wait lists, particularly those for children under three.

"People make jokes that if you're even thinking about getting pregnant, get your name on a wait list,'' Elliot said.

Protesters want the province to fulfill its promise to develop a "comprehensive, community-based child-care system.'' That means funding to create more spaces but also to train workers and help improve wages, Elliot said.

But Reid said the province has a plan in place that is delivering. The government's annual budget for child care is $200 million, and funding for day-care operators was recently raised by 36 per cent. In addition, Reid said, $12.3 million has been put into capital construction of about 1,500 new spaces across B.C. in the last 10 months.

Reid said wait-list numbers are misleading because one child could be on several different lists. All of the centres she has visited during 10 months as minister of state have had openings, she said.

Elliot said some centres that do have openings may be too expensive for many parents.