B.C. suggests parents use $100 federal child care benefit to offset day-care hikes
Trail Daily Times / Canadian Press
10 Jan 2007
By: Dirk Meissner VICTORIA
EXCERPT

VICTORIA (CP) -- The B.C. government is suggesting parents start saving the $100 monthly child-care cheques they get from Ottawa to help pay for child-care hikes expected on July 1.

B.C. child-care operators started telling parents this week to expect increases of up to $75 a month in child-care fees due to changes in federal and provincial programs.

The child-care hikes come at a time when the federal Conservative government and B.C.'s Liberal government are projecting surplus budgets.

Both levels of government say they are striving to improve child care, but day-care operators said Tuesday B.C. parents will ultimately be digging deeper into their pockets.

Day-care operators say the increases will be between $40 and $75 per month depending on the age of their child.

Parents with children in day care between three and five years old can expect to pay at least $40 a month more and parents with infants and toddlers up to three years old can expect an increase of up to $75 a month. ...

The federal change means British Columbia will reduce its Child Care Operating Funding Program rates in July to levels that existed prior to the election of the Conservative government and the proposed changes by the federal Liberals.

The funding change means government grant rates for most children enrolled in child care will drop by $2 per child or $40 per month. The reduction is higher for infants.

"You will know that the federal government chose to flow dollars differently to the provinces," Reid said. "They chose to flow their child-care dollars directly to parents."

"Will child-care centres ask those families to pay $40 of that $100 towards child care?" she said. "Many of them will. Is that appropriate that it be spent on child care? We frankly believe it is."

Reid said she expects to meet this month with her federal child-care counterpart, Monte Solberg, who was appointed last week as the minister of Human Resources and Social Development Canada.

Victoria child-care operator Elisa Linuzzi said British Columbia was hurt by Ottawa's decision to dump the previous Liberal government's child care plans, but Reid's letter pointing at Ottawa doesn't help cash-strapped parents.

"This is the most creative piece of fiction that I've read in quite some time," she said referring to Reid's letter.

"They've given us statistics that are diverting where the real attention needs to be put."

Reid said the government will continue to help up to 5,500 special needs children in British Columbia with subsidies, but the letter doesn't mention the parents who will have to pay more for up to 80,500 other children, said Linuzzi.

She said she expects the fee increases to force some families to apply for welfare rather than struggle in low-paying jobs.

"If families drop out of the workforce because they can't afford child care, the current conditions of the economics of B.C. are going to spiral downward," she said.