Future still uncertain for Quesnel CCRR, parents
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
ANNIE GALLANT
April 25, 2007

Child Care Resource and Referral centres across the province have been in turmoil since a conference call in early January delivered a $5-million budget reduction message.

Quesnel CCRR's co-ordinator Cari Charron said when the dust settled from that announcement, she discovered the truth was CCRRs across the province were slated for closure Sept. 30 this year.

"What they were going to do was put out a request for proposals for a new service delivery," she said.

"There was never any reason given for the decision."

NDP Cariboo-North MLA Bob Simpson, a strong supporter of maintaining CCRRs and improving the level of child care in the province, was concerned about how the minister's office handled the CCRR issue.

"The process by the minister's office was completely unacceptable," he said.

"It played politics with all the folds who run these child care referral centres and left them hanging for a long time as to what their future looked like."

After announcing the budget reduction and September-closing of all CCRRs, provincial-wide protests, stroller rallies, town hall meetings as well as petitions to the premier and Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid were launched.

By the end of February the government changed their minds. CCRRs would remain open and funded until March 2008, but at the $9-million level.

Charron said they gave each of the five regions a set budget, but left it to the offices within the region to squabble over distribution of the limited funds.

"If one CCRR didn't have enough to operate they were forced to negotiate with the other offices in their region to get more money," Charron said.

"This was a very difficult and emotional process as the CCRR operators, who work closely with each other all year long, were now pitted against each other for the diminished dollars."

Simpson said when he met with the minister she didn't want to hear there were problems.

"She believed she was giving CCRRs in a region autonomy over their budgets and felt that was a good thing," Simpson said.

"I challenged her on the feedback from the CCRR offices in the North were they certainly didn't feel it was a good thing, but, in fact, felt they were pitted against each other and that was the final insult to a very insulting process right from the start."

The new reality for Quesnel's CCRR office is one less full-time staff member, a reduction in bookkeeping and administration money and the elimination of the outreach programs in Hixon and Wells.

"I was very disappointed when I heard," Wells parent Allison Galbraith said.

"The outreach program offered the children a chance to get together and learn some basic preschool skills."

However, with support from the remaining CCRR staff, Galbraith and the other Wells parents are trying to go it alone.

"Sometimes it just takes encouragement by example to show the value of such a program and one we want to continue," Galbraith said.

There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the future of CCRRs in the province and both Charron and Simpson said at a time when the government is celebrating budget surpluses they have done little to alleviate the child care concerns.

"Partial funding restoration doesn't help the child care issue," Simpson said.

"It doesn't begin to scratch the surface on how this government has undermined child care in the province."