Provincial minister keeps an eye on child-care money
The Vancouver Sun
19 Mar 2007
By: Nicholas Read

EXCERPT

B.C. Minister of State for Childcare Linda Reid will be watching the federal budget carefully today to see if there is any new money for child care.

She is, she says, "ever hopeful." ...

But when the Conservatives came to power last year the promise of the remaining money all but evaporated following the introduction last summer of the Universal Child Care Benefit program. Instead of direct subsidies paid to day care, parents would receive $100 a month for each child they have age six and under.

Since Findlay made the promise not to reduce funding levels in a face-to-face meeting with provincial ministers in March, 2006, Reid says no such commitment has ever been made again, either by Findlay or her successor, Monte Solberg.

Instead, she says, Solberg has spoken of the government spending $250 million to build 25,000 new child-care spaces across the country each year for five years.

But Reid is still waiting to hear how much of that money will come to B.C. and if it will be earmarked just for construction or if it will help pay for operating child-care facilities as well.

"If their intention is only to build the spaces and not operate them, that's unhelpful to me," she said.

That's because it costs the province $10,000 to $15,000 a year to operate each space, depending on the age of the child....

Regardless, she says provincial spending on child care is expected to total $260 million this year, up from $203 million last year, and 1,500 new child-care spaces will be added to the existing provincial supply of 80,000.

Even so, critics complain it isn't nearly enough.

According to University of B.C. political scientist Paul Kershaw, who did a recent study on the subject for the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, there are only enough licensed child-care spaces for 13 per cent of all the children in B.C. In Alberta, he says, it's 12 per cent.

And while Kershaw recognizes that not all B.C. children will require day care, demand for spaces represents five times their supply.

Four years ago, Carolyn Neilson was so worried about finding child care for her unborn baby that she started registering with day-care services even before she told her parents or any of her friends that she was pregnant.

The only person who knew she was going to have her first son, Matthew, before the 33 child-care agencies she called did was her husband, Christopher Frigon.

Two years later, the same thing happened when Neilson, who lives in North Vancouver, discovered she was pregnant with Jacob, who is now one.

That's how afraid she and Frigon were that they wouldn't get their kids in.

"But that's the way it is for most people," says Neilson, who works full time as the manager of a youth employment centre.

"Most moms and dads know that's what it takes. That's one of the first calls they make when they're pregnant.

Neilson pays $1,750 to keep both her sons in child care, which she describes as "way too much."

"It's over half my own income," she says.

"And it's crippling frankly. We run into debt continually."

Asked if the federal government's $100-a-month benefit helps, she laughs.

"After tax, it amounts to about $140 for both kids, and the increase in the day-care fees was $160," Neilson said.