'Shocking' cuts may close child care centres
Cowichan Valley Citizen
10 Jan 2007
By: Andrea Rondeau

Local childcare advocates are angry and worried about the future of early childhood education in the Cowichan Valley and across the province following major provincial funding cuts announced Friday.

Mary Dolan, who runs the Growing Together Child and Parent Society and is a well-known voice is lobbying for development of the childcare system, said the cuts could well force some centres to close their doors or at least cut the number of spaces they have to offer.

Such actions would have a devastating impact on local families, she said, as there is already a shortage of licenced childcare spaces in the Cowichan Valley, particularly for infant care.

"Many parents are absolutely desperate to find affordable, quality childcare," she said.

In announcing the cuts last week, Linda Reid, the minister of state for childcare, said the province will continue to provide enhanced daycare subsidies to about 25,000 low-income families who use some of the 80,000 funded licensed spaces in the province.

The cuts, she said, amount to about $40 per month per child, which can be easily covered by the $100 per month parents are being given under the new federal Conservative government's childcare benefits plan.

The province is blaming the cuts on the Conservative's cancellation of a five-year joint funding program that began in 2005, a plan that was the brainchild of the former federal Liberal government.

However, Dolan said that's just an excuse.

The provincial government, she said, has the money in its surplus to continue the program; it just chooses not to spend it on childcare. This choice, she said, is contrary to what people in the province want. Local governments and agencies have made it abundantly clear they support a national childcare network, she said.

The funding decision, Dolan said, also flies in the face of the government's own studies and experts, who agree that more money, not less, needs to be spent to make sure children are getting what they need to become successful adults.

"Who are they listening to?" she asked. "People want their children to be nurtured and educated in quality environments and so who would believe that the provincial government, at a time when they have money in their coffers, that they could choose to put into our most vulnerable group, who are the children, would decide to cut and give some centres no option but to close their doors or reduce spaces?"

Dolan said she and others are very worried the government is putting people in charge of portfolios like this one when they have no expertise or overall knowledge of the subject.

The current cuts will hit centres across the Valley, she said. Growing Together alone stands to lose about $1,000 per month in funding.

"That's absolutely shocking," she said. "It's outrageous."

Further, Dolan said the $100 per month from the federal government will not cover the funding gap.

Cowichan-Ladysmith MLA Doug Routley agreed, calling the cuts "really awful."

He said the province's move is a clear step backwards in its commitment to childcare, saying it will take funding levels down to where they were prior to the agreement with the federal Liberals.

"And that wasn't enough," he said.

He called the move an absolute failure on the part of the province to live up to its commitment to the people who live here.

Putting money into childcare, he said, is a wise in the future, as it not only provides the future generation with what it needs, but provides those currently in the workforce what they need to be successful.

It's no coincidence, he said, that the province of Quebec has the lowest skills shortage in Canada and what is largely acknowledged to be the best childcare system.

Dolan said she and others in the field are very worried, particularly when they see funding cuts like this, that the government is promoting privatization of childcare.

Should childcare become corporately controlled, she said, it would inevitably lead to a drop in standards, something nobody wants to see.

Apart from direct funding for spaces, Dolan said cuts to the resource and referral program, which helps train providers and assists parents in making applications for subsidies will be a huge blow. The cuts announced will slash the resource funding from $14 million to just $3 million by October 2007.

Growing Together already can't offer the number of infant care spaces it wants to because they can't get trained providers.

Recruitment into the childcare field, Dolan said, is already at a dangerous low and less money to train more workers will not have a positive effect.