City pushes for better funding
Parksville Qualicum News
By FRED DAVIES News Reporter
Apr 27 2007

Parksville council has endorsed a motion that a letter be sent to Premier Gordon Campbell and Nanaimo-Parksville MLA Ron Cantelon to let them know about the child care crisis in our community, urging them to fully restore provincial child care funding.

The letter comes in response to correspondence received from the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C.

It outlines cuts to child care services that include the elimination of a national child care funding agreement by the federal government and a significant decrease in provincial funding that will result in the closure of some child care resource and referral offices.

"This is an issue near and dear to my heart," said councillor Chris Burger. "It seems to me both the province and the federal government aren't prioritizing this nearly enough ... I see a problem with our youth in the future and I think we're also going to see a pretty significant influence on our economy."

Councillor Marc Lefebvre echoed the comments.

"I can't understand why any level of government wouldn't want to ensure that children have access to good, quality care," he said.

Cantelon defends the province's actions in regards to childcare funding citing the withdrawal of federal funds as a big part of the problem.

"We've established as many daycare centres as we could," he said, adding his government has recently contributed $500,000 towards a child care facility in Lantzville.

"We've actually increased threshold levels for people needing assistance," he said.