Child-care funds demanded
Salmon Arm Observer
By Barb Brouwer
May 30, 2007

Stop blaming each other and provide the money for high-quality childcare.

That was the basic message given to representatives of two levels of government who took the hot seat at a child-care meeting last Thursday, where they met with some 30 area child-care workers and parents at the SASCU Downtown Activity Centre.

Following a presentation on the economic benefits of child care to the Canadian economy by Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union manager Jason Round and Kathleen Hurtubise, manager of investment services, Conservative MP Colin Mayes and Shuswap MLA George Abbott's assistant, Roxena Goodine answered a series of questions previously posed by the Shuswap Early Childhood Development Committee.

Mayes reiterated his government's plan to decentralize, sending money to the provinces and letting them decide what to do with the transfer payments.

"Most every province is running a surplus," he said, maintaining he has received as many letters supporting the Conservative plan as those opposing and that the provinces are in charge of social services. "I don't want to make the province the bad guy, but they have their own priorities."

Mayes said the Conservatives are keeping their promise to support families by mailing out 1.4 million cheques in the amount of $100 every month. As well, he added, $250 million has been set aside to create 25,000 child-care spaces over five years.

Explaining that she was simply able to read the provincial government response without additional comment, Goodine noted the loss to the province of $455 million when the then newly elected Conservatives killed a Liberal child-care plan.

"B.C. has not cut child-care funding by one dime," read Goodine. "In fact, we are investing approximately $260 million on child care this year (compared to $212 million in 2000-01)."

As well, Goodine continued, there is B.C.'s commitment to protecting and maintaining recent enhancements to the Child Care Subsidy Program, which supports 25,000 children in low- and middle-income families to the tune of $126 million, and the annual $54 million commitment to the Supported Childhood Development Program, which allows 5,500 children with special needs to participate in child-care settings.

Reaction to Mayes' and Goodine's presentations was swift and passionate. Okanagan College professor and activist David Lethbridge and Salmon Arm Coun. Ivan Idzan called for a national child-care system that would make high-quality child care available to all Canadian families in the same fashion as education and health care.

Lyle Chapman, who with wife Leigh-Anne owns and operates Lady Bug Landing, took government to task for their "spin" on child-care funding in light of ever-escalating costs of living.

The Chapmans, along with several others in attendance, alluded to the difficulty of retaining employees who are unable to live on what daycare operators can afford to pay.

Chapman, a high school career counsellor, said he feels obligated to steer young people away from child-care careers because of the low pay.

Several parents chastised Mayes for his previous comments that increasing child-care availability would simply have more parents using the services instead of raising their own children.

They made it clear that in many households, both parents have to work in order to support their families. Others made note of the onerous task of finding child care at night and on weekends.

Arguments on the lifetime importance of early childhood education were presented, as were the issues of huge waiting lists in Salmon Arm and the need for subsidies.

Tearful, 22-year-old Sasha Lewis, who struggles to provide for herself and her five-year-old daughter, brought that message home poignantly.

A single mom and a diabetic, a blushing Lewis related how she has a network of friends from whom she must borrow necessities such as toilet paper, tampons and insulin.

Formerly a restaurant server, Lewis has a new job, which, while it pays minimum wage now, at least holds promise of future raises. That is, if she doesn't lose the child-care subsidy.

"I feel like I live in a Third-World country," said Lewis breaking down after the meeting. "I have lived at the shelter and on friends' couches. I have my own apartment now, but if I lose the subsidy and have to pay daycare, I won't be able to work."

Solutions to all the problems are available, said an adamant Shuswap Daycare manager Karen Bubola, noting that the stumbling block is lack of funds.

"We need the money," she told Goodine and Mayes. "They say there is money, but we don't see it."

Lynne Wickett, executive director of the Shuswap Children's Association, added that Canada puts far less money into child care than many poorer countries.

As the meeting wound down, Mayes and Goodine agreed to pass on what they had heard to their respective governments.

"I am your representative, I will send a letter to the minister," Mayes said. "But, I'm not the policy maker."

Based on information gathered at last Thursday's meeting, members of the child-care community will prepare letters for Goodine and Mayes to pass along to B.C. Minister of State for Children, Linda Reid, and her federal counterpart, Monty Solberg.