Cadillac comment slammed
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
January 26, 2007
Mailbag By: L. Hamilton-Berry

Editor:

Re: Axe Falls on Child Resource Centre, TIMES, Jan 19

To take away the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Child Care Resource and Referral Program is simply to annihilate every individual, positive step that has been taken within this community, and by this community, for years. In order to achieve a necessary, fundamental level of professionalism within this field, all levels of interest groups have got to be afforded the opportunity to come together on a consistent basis, through a consistent system, in order to advance towards their highest ideals. The childcare workers within this community provide that opportunity, the resource and referral program provides the chance, and the clients that we serve provide the motivation.

The elimination of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Child Care Resource and Referral Program is what stands between effective progress, and the entire field of childcare within this community reverting back to a stagnant, unprofessional level of service. Their educational opportunities and professional acknowledgement were the single element in my internalizing my view on how vital it is to the to the child care workers and the families in this community that this field come together and recognize the importance of creating a system that they can own.

This is about progressive potential being removed based on the misperception that this field doesn't matter and is not deserving of the opportunity to continue to become a viable, professional fellowship. The shortsightedness, once again, of our government is truly astonishing. To have a local MLA make such absolutely uneducated statements on such an extremely important issue within our community is utterly discouraging.