Meeting to protest child care funding cuts set for Tuesday
The Daily Townsman (Cranbrook)
February 5, 2007
By: Gerry Warner

A public meeting to protest the recent federal and provincial child care funding cuts is being held 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Heritage Inn East Ballroom. Melanie Mongey, operator of the Angel Bear Daycare home in Cranbrook, says she organized the meeting because the cuts are pushing many parents and daycare providers to the wall.

"It's the children who are being hurt by this. If the money isn't there to provide enough daycare spaces for the kids they won't grow up to be the kind of people the community needs."

The cuts were triggered by the federal government's cancellation of the $455 million Early Learning and Childcare Agreement (ELCA) with the provinces, which resulted in Victoria making child care cuts of its own because it no longer had the federal funding.

Ottawa said the ELCA funding was no longer needed because of the federal government's new daycare program which gives parents $100-a-month for every child they have under the age of six. But Mongey says the $100-a-month program falls far short of replacing the ELCA funding. "One hundred dollars-a-month doesn't go very far these days. Most parents pay at least $600-a-month for groceries and if they have a child in daycare they could be paying another $800-a-month.

"I don't think the government is seeing the bigger picture."

Mongey says the meeting is for everyone including parents, care providers, daycare workers and service agencies.

"The purpose is to come up with ideas to deal with this situation because parents are getting frantic trying to find space for their children and daycare workers are wondering if they will have a job tomorrow."

In August 2006, there were 814 licensed and regulated daycare spaces in the East Kootenay, but this isn't nearly enough, Mongey said. Asked why at least one parent can't stay at home and look after their own children, she said many families find they can't survive financially unless both parents are working.

It's time government got the message, Mongey said. "I'm hoping they're going to hear us and the more voices we have there maybe they will listen and take our thoughts into consideration before they finalize everything."