Childcare agency faces closure
Williams Lake Tribune
By Sage Birchwater
Jan 25 2007

It's not a matter of if, but when Williams Lake's Child Care Resource and Referral programs shut down, Irene Willsie says.

The executive director of the Women's Contact Society - which holds the contract for CCRR in the region - says she is waiting to hear next month whether the programs will end in March or September.

"This will have significant impact on the whole child care community in Williams lake and surrounding areas," Willsie says.

Williams Lake and more than 20 communities between the city and Bella Bella will lose Mother Goose programs, child care training, and a lending library that provides toys, art supplies, and equipment like playpens, among other programs.

Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid announced this month that Child Care Resource and Referral programs will be shut down by the end of September, with its $14 million budget slashed to $3 million by Oct. 1. Willsie says the Women's Contact Society will feel the effect immediately, as it loses $300,000 in funding.

The cuts will also cost the CCRR five employees over the next six months. The Women's Contact Centre will continue to offer legal advocacy, Kid Care Day Care, the Women's Resource Centre, Success By Six, Make Children First, and a women's counseling program.

In the past year, 330 participants have attended workshops through Williams Lake's CCRR; 251 families have used consultation and referrals services; 160 child care providers and families have used the lending library.

There are 46 CCRR centres in the province.

Reid pointed to the federal Conservative government's decision to cancel the Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care with B.C., which costs the province $455 million in funding over three years, choosing instead to implement the Child Care Tax Benefit, which provides families with children under 6 years old $100 a month.

Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris says the federal transfer cuts blamed for sinking the CCRR programs was nothing more than a federal Liberal election promise that never really got off the ground. He says the universal child care plan that his government put into effect last July helps every child under the age of six.

"We didn't really cut anything. The program proposed by the Liberals wasn't going to meet the needs of families."

A spokesperson for Linda Reid's office says the province had to do something after losing the $455 million.

She says Victoria chose to protect the programs for the most vulnerable families like the Child Care Subsidy Program, worth $126 million per year, and the Supported Child Development Program ($54 million per year).

The opposition critic for Early Child Development, Child Care and Women's Issues, Clair Tervena, will be holding a roundtable in Williams Lake on Jan. 31. The round table will be at 2:30 p.m. at the Women's Contact Society, above Cariboo Ski at 19 North First Avenue.