$12.5 million for entire province inadequate: child-care advocate
Cowichan Valley Citizen
October 3, 2007 
By: Andrea Rondeau

The provincial government announced Monday it's putting $12.5 million towards creating new child-care spaces but Cowichan Valley advocate Mary Dolan says it's not enough to solve the crisis.

"We're aware that the government has been putting money into the creation of new child-care spaces and we're fortunate that some are being created here in the Valley," Dolan said. "Those spaces are all going to be needed."

The problem, she said, is that there's no plan to address the recruitment and retention of staff for the facilities.

"Right now there is a crisis because of lack of funding coming into centres for operations," she said…

Another new initiative will provide incentives to create new spaces in areas of existing public buildings that are not being used, she said.

Capital funding for the public spaces program will be available to all child-care providers, not just non-profit organizations.

Private sector and licenced family child-care providers will be able to apply for funding through the program.

All of that is "not adequate," Dolan said.

A report by Social Planning Cowichan has identified a need for 1,000 additional spaces for children under three in the Cowichan Valley alone.

Dolan said she'd love the opportunity to speak with Reid, as the minister doesn't seem to understand what child care truly is and what it requires.

It's not just babysitting, she said.

New spaces, she said, don't solve the problem of the rising costs of child care that many parents already cannot afford.

The $100 per month provided by the federal government that constitutes Prime Minister Stephen Harper's child-care plan, she said, is not nearly enough to offer parents a true choice.

At the Union of B.C. Municipalities annual conference last week, mayors from across B.C. collectively called on the provincial government to reinstate the multi-million dollar funding cuts made earlier this year to child care.

Dolan concurs with this plea but says ultimately the federal and provincial governments need to go further: "We need a universal, affordable, accessible, high-quality child-care system. Quebec has it. Why can't we have it?"