Child care cuts hit OPTIONS
The Leader (Surrey)
By Kevin Diakiw
Jan 24 2007

It's going to get harder to find quality day care as funding for referral services is eliminated.

By fall, the entire $900,000 budget for child care services at OPTIONS: Services to Communities Society will be cut by the provincial government.

OPTIONS provides a variety of services including referrals to qualified daycares, assistance for facilities needing licensing, and drop-in programs for parents and children.

OPTIONS also undertakes site visits, ensuring the care meets service standards.

For parents seeking care for their children, it means doing their own research into caregivers.

"Parents are just going to have to close their eyes and hope for the best," said Karen Norman, deputy director for OPTIONS. "It's a huge tragedy."

Because of those cuts, several daycares will lose subsidies, meaning the cost of day care will climb by about $75, according to Norman.

Tamara Robson, who runs A Bear's Den daycare in Fleetwood, said she'll also have to factor in additional advertising costs, as most of her business comes from OPTIONS' referrals.

She's reconsidering the idea of licensing the daycare.

"It's like having the rug pulled out from under you," said Robson, who started looking after children last April.

"I wouldn't have been up to do what I've done without OPTIONS." As an unlicensed daycare, she'll have to keep the number of kids in her care to three.

Several care providers are experiencing the same problems as Robson, and Norman said finding good daycares will only get harder for parents as services get slashed.

All 17 employees at the King George office have already been given notice. The cuts began in Ottawa and have been passed on through to local service providers by the province....

The Conservatives promised to axe that deal, opting for a popular $100 per month subsidy for parents for each child under six.

Blaming the federal cuts, B.C. is planning to cut its child care funding from $14 million to $3 million.

Provincial officials have said the $100 subsidy can pay for increased costs to parents.

Linda Reid, minister of state for child care, told The Leader Tuesday the biggest cost driver by far is that subsidy.

She will continue funding child care subsidy and supported child development, which target low-income families and kids with special needs.

The child care subsidy is available to families with annual incomes under $38,000 which have a child under six years old in a regulated day care. Supported child development is a range of services for children with special needs.

The government is continuing attempts to provide alternatives for services such as referral.

"Will the type of work shift? Absolutely," Reid said. "We will maintain as much of the services and as many of the programs as we can, but I have to allow some flex in the budget for how much is allowed for the other two programs."

Surrey Coun. Judy Villeneuve will ask her colleagues to lobby the provincial government to continue funding the programs.