Daycare needs greater funding
The Powell River Peak
Luke Brocki
05/02/2007

May is Child Care Month, but recent waves of cutbacks to funding haven't left advocates much reason to celebrate.

According to the Child Care Advocacy Forum, an alliance of six provincial child-care organizations that bring together more than 4,000 individuals, groups and providers in the province, up to $40 million will be cut from BC child-care in 2007, with devastating impacts to parents and providers.

Cuts of 27 per cent to child-care operating funds (CCOFs) for children under six will translate into higher parent fees, and cuts of 78 per cent to child-care resource and referral programs will destroy the programs as communities know them, the forum reports in a January statement. The forum adds that given the discontinuation of major child-care capital funding, no new child-care spaces will be built, and given an intake cap on access to CCOF for new spaces, new child-care spaces will be more expensive and less sustainable.

At the same time as government is cutting sustaining child-care funding, they are wasting dollars on one-time-only improvements that could be used to build a real child-care system, according to the statement, available online at advocacyforum.bc.ca.

The ministry of children and family development refuses to acknowledge the forum's worries, claiming the province created nearly 3,300 new child-care spaces since 2001. The ministry further denies that child-care has suffered any losses in funding, despite citing a loss of more than $455 million in federal funding that allegedly resulted from Ottawa's decision to cancel the Early Learning and Child Care agreement. The federal government, instead, provides funding directly to parents through the $100 per month Universal Child Care Benefit.

"The province is not reducing its contribution to child-care funding by one dime," wrote Linda Reid, minister of state for child-care, in an email to the Peak. "In fact, we will invest approximately $260 million on child-care this year, compared to $212 million in 2000/01. What we have done as a result of the challenge we have been presented with is refocus and invest child-care resources in programs that support our most vulnerable children and families."

Nicholas Simons, NDP MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, was unimpressed by Reid's comments. "May is Child Care Month, but the only thing I'd celebrate is that people advocating for child-care are still advocating," he said. "They're like a boxer standing after 15 rounds without ever getting a punch back."

Simons said Reid's blame of the federal government is nothing more than passing the buck, given that the federal funds now disappearing were brought in to replace money cut by the province from its own budget starting in 2002. "We didn't even hear the province criticize the federal government when the cuts were announced," said Simons. "All we've heard from Linda Reid are excuses and blame. There's no advocacy for families anymore and our communities are less healthy when our kids don't have a good start."

Simons said the child-care battle is already affecting the province's economic situation, with many parents unable to attend training and enter the job market because of a lack of supported child-care. "They're giving tax cuts to various industries because there's a surplus available for programs. If we're so rich, why don't we see better social programs?"

Wendy Barker, administrator at the Powell River Child, Youth and Family Services Society (PRCYFSS), said one of the substantial local impacts is the society's withdrawal from the operation of the Powell River Early Years Centre.

The $500,000 facility opened its doors last September, integrating childcare programming with family support services for families with children zero to six years.

Starting June 30, the society will lay off six staff due to lack of funding, and close the daycare to community parents of children aged zero to three and three to five.

"We're already running deficits and cannot continue," said Barker. "Our organization will no longer be able to do anything there."

Good licensed child-care is expensive, exceeding the subsidies and operating funds available, she said. The society was hoping for an increase, but instead saw cuts to operational funding. "It's the same old story," Barker said. "There's always one-time funding. But in the end, you have to have ongoing funding to maintain capacity. In fact what they've created is a place, but not a space."

Responding to a question about the provincial surplus, Reid wrote that the province will support a "wide range of child-care options in the future--investments the taxpayers of BC can afford over the long term."

Alison Bledsoe, project coordinator at Understanding the Early Years--Sunshine Coast, a related initiative that helps identify factors influencing the development of young children, was doubtful. "I would love to hear what this wide range of options looks like and how it relates to quality experiences for our youngest citizens," she said. "Investing in sub-standard child-care that doesn't address the needs of families and their children is not an investment that taxpayers can afford make."