Day-care protest dawns
Kamloops This Week
By MARK MACDONALD
Feb 04 2007
EXCERPT

Kamloops parents inconvenienced by Tuesday's day-care protest are getting a taste of what's to come if B.C. day cares remain underfunded, said the NDP's child-care critic.

"The parents that will be stuck this time for the protest will be stuck in the future," said Claire Trevena, who was in Kamloops Thursday, visiting with the local child-care community.

If the government refuses to create new day-care spaces and increase funding, Trevena said, Kamloops day-care waitlists will get longer and force parents away from their jobs to look after their children.

She listened as day-care workers lamented provincial and federal cuts to child care, announced late last year. Trevena said she supports Tuesday's action. "I'm supporting the day cares who want to show how angry they are about how wrong this is."

Some Kamloops day cares will stage a one-day walk-out on Tuesday at city hall to protest the cuts....

After those cuts were announced, the B.C. Liberals announced about $40 million in cuts to their child-care budget and capped the creation of new child-care spaces....

"The province is turning around and saying, 'We don't have the money for this,' despite having the money for the past 15 years for it," Trevena said. "It basically means parents are going to have to pay more for child care." ...

Mary-Ellen Everatt, director of the Kamloops YMCA-YWCA child-care resource and referral centre, said the majority of Kamloops day-care dependent parents support Tuesday's protest.

The protesters will line the Overlander Bridge and the road in front of the courthouse Tuesday at 7 p.m. before coming together for a noon rally at city hall.

"I think we're going to have a full house," Everatt said.