Child-care funding helps more than parents
Cariboo Press
March 16, 2007
Kamloops This Week - Letters -- Chelsea Corsi

Editor:

I find it very disappointing some of your readers don't support government participation in creating child-care spaces for working families because "we" are only working for our own personal gain to purchase "toys" such as RVs and homes on the lake.

Contrary to the belief of some of your readers, a universal program that offers access to child-care spaces that are affordable, of quality and, of course, actually exist benefits our society as a whole, not only parents requiring this service.

I ask that citizens of this community put their critical thinking caps on and consider this a big-picture issue, not only one of relevance to working families needing child care.

In general, our social and economic development depends on working parents, not only for the financial contributions they make to income tax, the Canadaian pension fund and employment insurance, but also for their physical presence in the workforce.

Have you seen the classified ads lately?

Employers are struggling to find warm bodies to fill positions.

For example, what would happen to our economy and our education and health- care systems if one person in all dual-parent families did not return to work because they could not find appropriate child care?

Without the finances and labour working families provide, the critical programs and services we all depend on would ultimately collapse.