Not too late to stand up for child care
Trail Daily Times
20 Feb 2007
Katrine Conroy

Last week the B.C. legislature returned for the third session of the 38th parliament. We, the members of the official opposition, are especially pleased to be back in the legislature as we knew full well the government could not cancel this legislative sitting.

I personally am pleased as it gives us the opportunity to raise the many issues that are affecting you, the constituents of West Kootenay-Boundary.

A very timely example of this is the issue of the impending child-care cuts in this province.

This newspaper has already been publishing news stories and letters to the editor expressing concerns about the situations we all face. I have been listening to the concerns of many, including parents, caregivers and employers of the looming repercussions of the cuts.

On Feb. 13, I stood at a rally outside the legislature with over 1,500 people from across the province, including some from our area. All had a collective message "Stop the Child Care Cuts!"

There were adults and children alike listening to speakers describing the impact of what will happen, groups singing and a moving drum rendition by a First Nations child-care society that traveled by bus all the way from Williams Lake. We knew that, as we rallied, there were smaller events happening across the province, including a number in our own communities.

NDP leader Carole James and the NDP's child-care critic, Claire Trevena, both spoke and confirmed our support of the issues and challenged Premier Gordon Campbell, Finance Minister Carole Taylor and Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid to stop the cuts.

Later that day we listened to the throne speech, waiting with baited breath to see how child-care services would be addressed. How would children and families be recognized?

Imagine our stunned amazement to hear absolutely nothing. Not one mention anywhere.

The hypocrisy when the speech opens with "At the heart of the government's agenda lies the simple question: what can we do to secure the future for our children and our grandchildren?"

We were outraged and the following day took this blatant disregard to the premier and the minister during question period. On both Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, questions were asked and on both days, insufficient answers were given. The full responses of the exchanges are available in the Hansard records of those who would like to read them.

I will summarize though that they are "proud of their managing of the child-care sector, happy they have been able to increase the subsidy threshold and although they are making cuts, it is all because of the federal government's cuts and it's all being done in order to provide for the most vulnerable children."

They failed to acknowledge that their original cuts in 2002 were back-filled by the federal dollars, the increase to subsidies won't help parents who are on a waitlist, the cuts to the Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) programs could further eliminate child-care spaces and that children with special needs or the "vulnerable" as the minister refers to them, won't be able to find spaces or services either if there aren't any.

I pointed out to the minister that in fact "all children ages zero to six are vulnerable if they can't access good-quality child care."

We have presented numerous petitions; the ones I have received from our region had, as of Feb. 15, over 1,500 signatures alone.

Statements have been made by our members about the wonderful, very necessary programs this province has and that we could lose.

I have also raised how this could and will impact our economy. Right now, as we have a considerable shortage of skilled workers in this province, the last thing we need is the inability of parents to go to work or school because of an inability to access child care.

When a highly skilled nurse can only work two days a week because that's all the child care she can get, she's on a wait list for more child care, we all lose. When a student nurse is struggling to finish her training and start a full-time job, but can't get full-time child care, again, we all lose. And when employees can't make it in to work because their child care isn't in a stable, quality rogram, the employers lose.

So what do we do? I wrote this prior to the budget set to be announced today; we will have to wait to see what happens. We will observe if this government is willing to listen to the people of this province, to the parents, caregivers, advocates of the sector, to city councils, school boards, and regional districts who have all expressed their opposition to the cuts.

If you haven't expressed your concerns yet, there is still time. In fact, children have even sent letters. I have had many letters that I could quote from but a hand-drawn note and picture from six-year-old Chloe was heartfelt and said it all, "Do not close the ccrr, the ccrr is fun."

Let's hope for Chloe and all children's sakes that ministers Reid, Taylor and Premier Campbell are listening. Time will tell.