Letters to the Editor
04 Feb 2007
Kamloops This Week - Letters

#1 -- BY: Val Janz

Editor:

Re: "Not all support day-care demonstration," my blood begins to boil.

If parents think a one-day walkout is an inconvenience compared to what will happen if child-care funding is not restored, they don't know the issues and don't understand the long-term implications.

This walkout is hardly self-serving. Most child-care and preschool services closing for the day will lose their pay and there is no strike pay. This walkout is for children, families and our community.

Cuts to childcare funding in the short term mean:

Parent fees will increase from $40 to $80 per month per child as of July 1, 2007. (This will cost more to parents than a day's wages lost to the protest.)

Existing waitlists for child care, currently 1,000 spaces locally, will increase. If parents think it is difficult to find child care now, think again.

The closure of the Childcare Resource and Referral program will eliminate the access point for parents to find child care, eliminate training and education for parents, eliminate training and education for new and existing care providers -- some of which is mandatory for licensing regulations -- provide no help for parents to complete subsidy applications, and end the toy-lending library for early childhood service providers and community members.

Intake caps on operating funding will prevent new child-care spaces from opening. Child care and pre-school services may close.

The cuts have the potential to create a two-tier system based on a parent's ability to pay. Fewer children will be ready to start kindergarten.

It could reduce the available labour force (families can't find quality care) and reduce disposable income.

It could limit growth to the community, which affects real estate and employment.

It is time for parents, business, the school district and all elected representatives to advocate a policy that will restore and sustain adequate child-care services funding.

#2 By: Patricia Zerr

Editor:

I am a single mother of two children who requires after-school care for one child.

Though I cannot afford to take a day off post-secondary studies and/or work to show my support in the government's cuts being too deep, I cannot afford to not stand up for the rights and needs of my family, as well as those of other families across the province.