Centre valuable
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
January 30, 2007
By: Heidi MacDonald

Editor:

Re: Axe falls on child resource centre, TIMES, Jan. 19

I was disappointed by MLA Randy Hawes' comments regarding the level of childcare provided in his riding. His attitude is disappointing and somewhat scary. It seems to indicate that a tiered system of childcare is acceptable and that poorer, less financially secure families should be happy with whatever level of childcare they can afford.

His opinion seems to be that the well-off families can stay home and raise their children, the average income families can afford licensed, high level child care and the poorer families will just have to take what is left. This is exactly what will happen with the closure of a program such as the Child Care Resource and Referral.

Mr. Hawes should be working on solutions for maintaining this program rather than comparing licensed, high-level child care to Cadillacs. I agree that there are some wonderful, unlicensed childcare centres available for families, however families do not have any information on what those centres are without a program such as the CCRR.