B.C. cuts put child-care program in jeopardy
Trail Daily Times
19 Jan 2007
By: Kate Skye
EXCERPT

Trail's Child Care Resource and Referral program is about to have its funding axed by the provincial government and local staff are urging the community to rally behind them.

Last year, CCRR programs across B.C. were told by government to move their programs to larger spaces and make them accessible for all parents.

So that's what the Trail CCRR did. FAIR, which manages the program, bought the old school board building from the City of Trail and moved all its programs on July 1.

"We renovated quite extensively," said Gail Lavery, executive director of FAIR. "We used a lot of our own fundraised dollars to do that."

Now, less than six months later, the government says it will pull the plug on the 52 CCRR programs across the province.

Sue McIntosh has been working with the program in Trail since it began in 1991.

"I felt absolutely sick when I read the letter," she said. "I can't believe all the money invested in these programs to make them accessible and in the snap of a finger they are taking it away." ...

The Trail office services more than 500 parents and 60 caregivers, McIntosh said.

Sunshine Centre manager Lynn Proulx was devastated to hear the news.

"I send all my parents there for subsidy information. I call there a lot for information, we get support as professionals with workshops, they are a huge resource."

Information about the pending doom of the program came in a letter to the child-care community on Jan. 5 from Linda Reid, B.C. Minister of State for Child Care.

Reid is blaming the federal government for canceling an agreement which would have seen $455 million over three years come to B.C. for early childhood programs....

Four staff work in the Trail office, which also services Castlegar. CCRR is FAIR's second-largest program (the Transition House being the largest), and running the program helps with FAIR's overall budget.

"This will absolutely affect the whole society," Lavery said. "We depend on all our programs to make a contribution to the overhead."

The province has said it will cut the existing provincial CCRR budget of $14 million by 37 per cent as of April 1 and all funding will be pulled by Oct. 1.

Lavery said canceling the program goes against initiatives that local chambers of commerce and the Lower Columbia Community Development Team have been working hard on.

"They have initiatives to make this area more attractive for young families," she said. "Young families need child care and support around child care."

And to rub salt in the wound, staff have been told the province will use some the $87 million surplus from past federal transfer payments to buy out their buildings, vans, and photocopying leases at the end of September.

"This feels incredibly irresponsible," said Lavery. "It's quite astounding and I cannot understand it."

In some communities, programs will close in April, but Interior CCRRs plan to keep working at reduced funding until the fall. By then, they hope enough community support will change the government's mind.

"In 2003, the Liberal government threatened to take away the funding but the community rallied and supported us and they changed their minds," McIntosh said. "Finally, we have a nice, bright, barrier-free office. We feel valued as professionals. We are helping to create healthy children for the future, and it is going to be gone." ...

Reid also indicated existing child-care operating grants will be cut at the end of June.

Proulx said that will have a huge impact on day-care centres. Sunshine will have to increase its fees dramatically, making day care unaffordable for many, she said.

CCRRs around the province are organizing rallies and petitions, Lavery said, and there is talk of a mass child-care shutdown