Cadillacs and our child care
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
23 Jan 2007
Opinion
EXCERPT

Not everybody can afford a Cadillac.

That's certainly true, Randy Hawes (Axe falls on child resource centre, TIMES, Jan. 19). Some drive old clunkers, rust buckets, while others take the bus or walk.

And there are those who drive around in Pintos. Pity them. If you're going to compare licenced daycares with Cadillacs, then perhaps you should be comparing the unlicenced facilities to the ill-fated Pinto.

Is that really what we should be striving for?

In making the Cadillac comment, Hawes, the Liberal MLA for Maple Ridge-Mission, was responding to news that the local Child Care Resource and Referral Program would be forced to close its doors due to lack of funding. The province blamed the federal government ....

Then Hawes suggested that maybe parents ought to lower their expectations when it comes to raising their children.

For Mr. Hawes to suggest that parents need to re-think childcare and look for the more "economical" options is ludicrous.

A lot has changed in the world in the last 30 years, Mr. Hawes. Because you didn't require paid childcare for your children in the '70s and '80s, does not mean that somehow you were better prepared than today's parents.

Fact is parents, if there are two at home, cannot afford to get by on a single income. Fact is, try as she might, a mom can't always stay at home full-time, and grandma's not always around the corner, willing and able to take in the toddlers.

Fact is, these days, grandma's working, too.

Fact is, Mr. Hawes, your government is profiting handsomely by the booming provincial economy, an economy that is every bit as dependent on working moms as the average household is -- households struggling with the high cost of housing.

On Jan. 9, the provincial government boasted about the booming economy: "British Columbia has hit a record assessment value of $19.5 billion, up 55 per cent from a year ago."

Every time one of those costly homes sells the province rakes it in. And with that cash, Mr. Hawes and his cronies can make announcements, they can shovel dirt on the new Olympic facilities, they can pose for photo ops alongside downed trees in one of the nation's richest neighbourhoods.

But at the same moment, in skillfully worded press releases, they can announce the demise of an essential childcare program.

And then Mr. Hawes can berate parents who are only trying to provide their children with the Cadillac of early learning opportunities.

And why shouldn't they, Mr. Hawes? Perhaps if the Childcare Resource and Referral Program blew down in a fierce storm, perhaps you'd be standing beside it, photographers snapping away, and perhaps you and your government would pour money into it. But perhaps you figure kids aren't worth it....