Cuts exert pressure on child care
Cariboo Press -- Vernon Morning Star
February 2, 2007
Excerpt

As a result of provincial funding cuts, there appears to be no end in sight to the child care crisis in B.C., and child care operators have decided they've had enough.

"We're mad and we're not going to take it anymore," said Lynne Reside, chair of the Okanagan branch of Early Childhood Educators of B.C.

"There are no child care spaces anywhere and now we've got major cuts to our funding." ...

In a handout sent home to parents this week, the Child Care Advocacy Forum breaks down the cuts....

"In the last two years, there have been huge changes and what's very significant is that there is low unemployment now, so some people who used to provide child care will go out and work outside the home," said Reside. "But the big thing is it's hard to get staff, and some of this funding was used to pay staff, so it's gone from bad to worse." ...

"I get calls all day every day, phone calls, e-mails, and increasingly very stressed parents, asking 'what am I supposed to do?' I have people phoning and putting their names on the wait list where it's four years long for infants and toddlers." ...

"It's so discouraging, it's not like we're trying to be difficult, there's a problem here and I know there's only so much money to go around, but this $100 a month was a very poorly thought out plan.

"When that money was sent to everybody last year, it was in lieu of the child care plan; a lot of the centres didn't raise their fees, but now we have no choice but to raise our fees. So the people who don't need it, they get to keep their $100, while those that do need it will now have to pay more anyway, plus it's taxable income. It's just not logical."

Reside said while the cuts began with the federal government, it's up to the provincial government to come up with a plan to fund child care. "Supposedly the provincial government has a $2 billion surplus, so let's look to the province."

While it's parents and their children who will be affected by the cuts, thanks to an increase in child care fees, Reside said it's crucial that the community understand that child care is not simply a parent issue.

"If your doctor or nurse, social worker or grocery clerk doesn't have child care, you're not going to get service either, it doesn't matter if you're a parent or not. Our community works when child care works."

The child care community in the North Okanagan is asking parents and childcare providers to wear black Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of Prime Minister Stephen Harper taking office.

Reside said child care facilities will inform parents of any action to take place that day, in order to bring attention to this matter.