Tour rallies support for child care
Trail Daily Times -- Castlegar Current
22 May 2007
By: Dale West

CASTLEGAR -- ... This May, a group of child-care advocates are pushing to turn that celebration into a commitment from government to fund an affordable, quality, accessible, public child-care system that works for all Canadian children and families.

Having already travelled to Victoria, Duncan and Vernon, the Child Care - Let's Make it Happen! Tour stopped in Castlegar Thursday evening before proceeding to Prince Rupert and Richmond.

Organized by The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., the B.C. Government and Services Employees' Union and the national Code Blue for Child Care Campaign, the tour focuses on letting people know child-care advocacy in is alive and well, that communities are standing together for child care like never before, and child care will be an issue in every federal riding in B.C. in the next election.

Toni Hoyland, president of the Early Childhood Educators of B.C., told an audience of 75 parents, caregivers and administrators who came from Trail, Nelson, Castlegar, Grand Forks and as far away as Spokane, that the government was "blind" to the current crisis in child care - a crisis that existed even before provincial cuts made in January.

Hoyland said that Minister Linda Reid was putting a "false political face" on the situation with statements that the province has 9,000 licensed childhood educators. The number might be right, but critical staff shortages indicate these people aren't working in the field.

"Where are they? Anywhere they can earn a decent living," said Hoyland, noting that the average wage for early childhood care is $13 per hour.

"It's time to look at a reasonable entry wage for early childhood educators ... an entry level at least $20 per hour."

Canada is one of the few industrialized countries that doesn't recognize the value of child care, said Morna Ballantyne, coordinator of the national Code Blue campaign.

Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Italy and Germany provide child-care services to over 90 per cent of children between the age of three and six, noted Ballantyne. In Canada, that percentage falls to 30 per cent.

Ballantyne drew attention to more statistics from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation that ranks Canada last in a survey of 20 member countries relating to child-care services for three- to six-year-olds. That same report ranks Canada as the fourth-wealthiest country in the group.

By scrapping $5.2 billion in federal/provincial child-care agreements, Ballantyne said the federal government has "abandoned" child care. Replacement individual allowance payments do nothing to defuse the child-care crisis, not increasing care quality or addressing low wages and poor working conditions in the field.

Ballantyne called for a new program to give every child access to affordable, high quality, inclusive education and care while insuring high wages, good working conditions and training programs for caregivers.

Starting with kids ages three to five, she said the federal government should invest an additional $1.2 billion annually in transfers to the provinces. After four years, money could be directed towards all children through to age 12.

"In 10 years' time we will have full universality."

One of the biggest difficulties in advocating for child care is that "almost nobody has experienced it," so they don't know what advocates are talking about, explained Ballantyne.

"If they see what it is like, we are convinced Canadians will feel about child care the way they do about medicare."

Being silent and afraid "doesn't cut it when you are trying to create something new in your country," said Susan Harney, president of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. "It won't happen because it is the right thing, it will happen because we demand it to happen."

As for the best strategy to employ in the fight ahead, Harney summed it up in a word: vote.

"We need to vote. If we vote in a government that believes and reflects our values, we will get this system."