Child care staff get pink slips
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
25 May 2007
By: Jennifer Moreau

Staff that runs a child-care resource program for Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows had to deliver the dreaded pink slips earlier this month to three full-time employees thanks to budget reductions.

"They weren't shocked but very disappointed," said Vicki Kipps of the laid-off employees. Kipps works as executive director of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services, the non-profit group that runs the Child Care Resource and Referral Program.

"They understand it was strictly a decision based on budget," she added. After a budget reduction of nearly half compared to last year's, the program can only afford three part-time staff now.

"We're going to do our best and try to be as creative as possible. The option to not provide the service in our community is just not an option for us," Kipps said.

The laid-off workers were responsible for the day-to-day operations of the program, she said. That means helping parents looking for day care, while providing training opportunities, networking events, resources and equipment to care providers. ..

Kipps said she was initially thankful and optimistic after the province decided to keep the CCRR programs.

"But when we really started to crunch numbers and look at our budgets they were significantly reduced," she added. "It is a mixed, mixed message."

For the 2005-2006 budget year, the ministry gave the local program $136,331 to operate. In 2006-2007, after the Liberal government's boosted child-care spending, the CCRR got $285,401 and now, in 2007-2008, they're back to $145,103.

Reid placed responsibility on the federal government for cancelling the agreement making cutbacks inevitable.

"The reality is they've taken back their five million bucks," Reid said. "They can't promise a dollar one year and take it away the next."

Reid said she would work on building a provincial child-care system.

"We're back to the stability of provincial funding because we can't rely on federal funding," she said. Reid added it was unfortunate that the former Liberal government signed the agreement so close to the end of its term and should have done something sooner.

"You do it on the day your elected, you don't do it the last day you're in office," she said, adding the agreement wasn't an "off-the-cuff" announcement -- the government had been working on it for five years.

"It's unfortunate the process took as long as it did," she said.