Council joining child care lobby
Cariboo Press / Salmon Arm Observer
March 14, 2007

Salmon Arm council has agreed to go to bat for the local child care community.

Council heard from all members of a four-person delegation on Monday. Shuswap Early Childhood Development Committee co-ordinator Jan Lacko began by providing background details on local child care concerns. She said the federal government's decision to kill off a child-care plan some 20 years in the making, cost Canada's child care community $455 million in funding over the next five years.

"That had a huge impact locally," she said.

Next up, a public health nurse with Interior Health Authority, Barb Henderson told councillors she frequently hears concerns about rising child- care costs and stressed the importance early childhood development has on an entire lifetime. Henderson referenced a Feb. 26 letter from IHA's senior medical health officer Paul Hasselback to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Gordon Campbell.

In it, Hasselback expresses deep concern over proposed reductions to child- care support in B.C., pointing out federal cuts will impact the most vulnerable children in Canada.

"It is well recognized that experiences that support early development can affect physical and mental health, learning, achievement, income, employment and relationships," he wrote. "There is evidence to suggest that lack of appropriate experiences in the early years can predispose a child to chronic illness in later life, criminal behaviour and premature death."

Applauding her employer's stand, Henderson told council the local child-care community is seeking accessible, affordable quality child care.

"Not only for today," she said. "The future councillors of tomorrow are the children of today."

Coun. Ivan Idzan supported the delegation, maintaining, "it takes a community, province and country to provide adequate child care." Coun. Alan Harrison noted more and more single wage earners and grandparents are raising children today.

"They need our support," he said.

As requested, councillors agreed unanimously to support a City of Trail resolution to UBCM asking the province to restore funding to the Child Care Resource and Referral Program immediately.

They also agreed to pass a resolution in support of the restoration of federal child care funding and will write a letter to the federal government urging them to maintain their commitment to the Federal Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. They will send a copy of the resolution to several government agencies.

Pleased by council's willingness to make a resolution supporting reinstatement of federal child care funding, Lacko said the delegation could be viewed as an opening that can lead to a better connection between the city government and the people that are advocating for children here.

"There's a really big role government can play and this is the start of it," she said.