Letters -- Sukh Dhaliwal MP, Newton-North Delta

It was with some interest that I read your recent feature on the state of child care in our community - and communities like ours throughout British Columbia, for that matter.

It may be that the landmark agreement with all the provinces on universal child care, brought to the table by the former Minister of Social Development Ken Dryden, might sadly be a thing of the past, but there must surely be a constructive way forward to deal with some of the glaring problems with the current situation.

The facts, which reporter Leslie Dickson and your editorial outlined clearly, are quite stark:

Parents paying $745 per month to place their children at a centre full-time after government operating subsidies are factored in; some families putting up $4,000 to $5,000 just to hold a spot for their children, where the demand is 10 times greater than the amount of spaces; the widening disparity between those who can afford child care options and those who must make do any way they can.

As your editorial eloquently put it, "child care should not be a two-tiered system."

Yet a two-tiered system is precisely what we see emerging. What's worse, for all the talk from the federal government of incentives to build new child care spaces, there is not one new child care facility to show for them since the 2005 election…

The simple fact remains that a $100 a month cheque for families is not a child care plan but simply a benefit.

The so-called choice for child care that this was supposed to provide for all families simply does not amount to real choices at all.

Your feature and your editorial were a stern wake-up call. Let's hope "Canada's new government" is listening and that real choices for child care can become a national priority again.