Child care satellite falls to cuts: A cut in child care funding is the federal government's fault, according to the province.
Advance News -- Langley
March 20, 2007
By: Roxanne Hooper

Provincial politicians are blaming their counterparts in Ottawa for impending cuts to a child care resource and referral (CCRR) programs and closure of a satellite centre in Langley.

The operation in Walnut Grove is among three referral centres in the province on the chopping block as of the end of April, B.C.'s Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid announced Friday.

Reid claims that Ottawa eliminated $455 million in child care funding to the province during the next three years, which she said presents the challenge. While the provincial government has apparently been able to protect its $9 million share of annual funding for the CCRR program on an ongoing basis, Reid said, the federal cuts have translated to a serious restructuring of the program on a region-by-region basis.

She vows the province is continuing to provide services for families and service providers in 41 communities throughout B.C. Three satellite centres in Courtenay, Elk Valley and Fort St. John will remain open.

But the centres in Walnut Grove, Kitimat and Gibsons will close April 30... BC Government and Service Employees' Union blasted the announcement saying it came without notice or consultation.

"This is another Black Friday for child care in B.C.," union president George Heyman said after the announcement.

"The B.C. government continues to turn its back on the needs of families by recklessly cutting these community lifelines connecting working families and child care operators in every community."