Child care advocates to push B.C. gov't for day care plan
The Daily Bulletin (Kimberley)
May 15, 2006
By: Dirk Meissner/ Canadian Press
EXCERPT

...."There's really a need for the government to start to deal with making a commitment to child care and a long-term plan," she [Enid Elliot Victoria rally organizer] said.

The rally organizers will call on the government to develop a plan that meets community child-care needs and provides enough money to make that happen, said Elliot, the chairwoman.

Child-care advocates are concerned the federal budget cuts could result in day-care fee increases, cuts to subsidy rates, loss of child-care spaces and fewer options for families, she said....

Elliot said child-care advocates are concerned about the Campbell government's muted response to the cuts initiated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.

"Stephen Harper would be part of it, but I think it's the silence of our government in that other governments, Manitoba, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, they've all been clear that they want the federal government to honour the child-care agreements that were made," she said....

"A hundred dollars a month is not going to create a universal child-care system," Elliot said. "Not to knock that, but to claim that that would be anything that has to do with child care is like trying to do apples and oranges."

Linda Reid, B.C.'s minister of state for childcare, said.... "We haven't been silent. We have spoken up," Reid said.

British Columbia has a solid $200 million child-care system that continues to develop new spaces and programs for children, she said...