Parents will have to pay more for child care
Penticton Herald
24 Jan 2007
By: Scott Trudeau

Government funding cuts mean parents in the South Okanagan will be shelling out more money for child care and will lose valuable child-care referral programs, says a local community resources official.

As of July 1, there will be 27 per cent less funding for child-care operations in licensed group and family child-care services for children up to six years old.

On Oct. 1, funding to child-care resource and referral programs will be cut 77 per cent. Without a registry of child-care providers, parents will have to find suitable caregivers on their own.

Linda Reid, B.C.'s minister of state for child care, recently sent a letter to child-care providers, families and funded agencies regarding the cuts.

Kim Lyster, Penticton and District Community Resources Society's executive director, said loss of funding will impact their agency in many ways.

"Not only do we provide child-care resource and referral . . . but we deliver child-care programs," she said. "We're affected by the rollback of the operating grant and we deliver supportive child development, so we're hit by every single decision that's included in this broad array of funding decisions."

Lyster noted the child-care resource and referral program has been operating for many years, providing training, information, support and referrals to families looking for child care and to people providing child care.

"We're the first place people go to try and find child care in the community," said Lyster. "There's already a limited number of child-care spaces, and it's going to be harder for parents to access child care."

According to Lyster, the South Okanagan-Similkameen will be affected by loss of the child-care resource and referral program along with the loss of operating funding.

Present child-care operating funding will be maintained until end of June, with the average rate reduction slated at $2 per enrolled child per day.

"Government is rolling back the child care operating funding program . . . to rates from two years ago, which is going to mean that the average increase to child-care fees will be at least $40 a month or more per child," she said.

Without that money, day-care facilities will need to charge more to make up for the loss in operating funding.

A woman who operates a licensed day care on Martin Street raised her prices this year to cover heating and air-conditioning costs, the replacement of toys and the loss of bingo funding.

The day-care operator, who asked not to be identified, said the increase was not related to the operating funding cuts. She expressed her frustration that little is said about the homecare workers who are licensed, qualified early childhood educators.

"I get a bit fed up that nobody ever thinks about the workers . . . we'd like to make a living too," she said.

Penticton-Okanagan Valley MLA Bill Barisoff said while some people suggest the government's budget surplus could be put toward funding for child-care services, it isn't a matter of simply injecting that money back into the ministry.

"Everybody says there's a surplus of money that's there, but every minister is looking for a piece of that," he said.

Barisoff noted there are a number of competing demands for surplus in areas such as education, healthcare and agriculture.