EXCERPT

An NDP private member's bill that lays the foundation for a national child care act passed narrowly last week. The Early Learning and Child Care Act passed its second reading 144-116 and now heads for a review before a final vote expected in early 2007.

"This vote sends a clear message to the minority Conservative government that affordable and accessible national early learning and child care are essential to today's families," said Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen. "Now, we can finally get on with the work that will make national early learning and child care programs a reality."

According to the MP, 'hundreds' of Northwest families, child care providers and early learning educators have contacted him in recent months to oppose the government's $100-a-month child care tax deduction, implemented last July.

"Our future well-being as a society depends on the investment we make in our young children today," said Shelley Worthington, implementation manager for the Smithers area Make Children First program. "Providing quality child care and early learning programs that support the development of young children is a critical first step toward helping our children to develop to their full potential."

Bill C-303 does not compel the government to spend additional money on child care, however it requires future spending in the area to meet a number of requirements.

"If the Act had been in place, the Harper government would not have been able to tear up signed child care agreements with the provinces and replace them with small taxable allowances," said Sharon Gregson, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C.

The move comes as anti-poverty group Campaign 2000 reports that Canada has failed miserably in its 17-year-old pledge to eliminate child poverty.

According to the report, almost one in six children still live in poverty, and all the provinces report child poverty rates of more than 10 per cent. This does not include rates in First Nations communities where one in every four children is growing up in poverty.

"Despite continued economic growth, Canada's record on child poverty is worse now than it was in 1989," the report said. "The average low-income two-parent family is still living as far below the poverty line as they were 11 years ago. Female lone-parent families have experienced only marginal improvement in the depth of poverty." ...