Valley CCRR groups not taking cuts sitting down
13 Feb 2007
Smithers Interior News

The impact of a provincial government announcement stating funding for Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) programs across the province will be drastically cut is still being measured.

At the end of January, Northwest region CCRR board members met with Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen to discuss what the future holds.

"We wanted to let Nathan know how these funding cuts from the B.C. government will impact the community, especially here in the North," said Mary Phipps, regional CCRR coordinator for Northern B.C.

Phipps said various options for showing their displeasure with the cuts and keeping the public aware of the issue were discussed, such as Town Hall meetings and a letter-writing campaign. Cullen indicated he would be available to help in any way he could.

"This is really going to hurt families in the Valley," Cullen said.

"This is the absolute wrong direction to go on child care right now."....

Charlene Johnson, executive director of the Bulkley Valley Child Development Centre Society (CDC), said CCRR is one of the seven programs offered at the centre. Due to the cuts, three of their CCRR program workers will be laid off, effective April 1.

"It's a big loss for us," Johnson said. "It's a very, very sad day for me. To me, child care in B.C. is a house of cards and you pull out child care resource and referral and it's all going to crumble."

Specific programs such as providing support to families so they can access child care subsidies and assisting child care centres get up and running will be no longer offered at the CDC, something Johnson feels will affect those in remote areas and Aboriginals the most....

Among the CCRR programs that families in the Valley will no longer have access to are: outreach services for small, hard-to-reach communities; child care referrals; parent education workshops; lending libraries and free drop-in programs for families and their children.

Currently, Cullen said his party is working a bill through Parliament that would enshrine a national child care program into law similar to the Canada Health Act.

"We're putting a lot of effort into this nationally," he said.

"We're really trying to ramp up the attention to the issue because it's critical everyone is made aware of how we're treating our families."