We are in the middle of a huge and growing crisis with regard to child-care services in this province. I have heard that in the entire West Kootenay there are no empty child-care spaces. All centres and family day-care providers have very long waiting lists, not only for infants and toddlers, but also for 3-5 year olds. There are untold numbers of young Moms who need and want to work but who just cannot get safe and affordable child-care in their community. What a waste of talent in this economy desperate for workers.

There are fewer and fewer skilled Early Childhood Education (ECE) workers locally and elsewhere in B.C. High quality training is no longer available in most colleges and the wages are so low (and declining) that few who do take the training stay in the field for very long.

Over the years I have watched the struggles of some amazing, highly-trained and skilled ECE professionals, who, after many years trying to make ends meet, have completely abandoned the field because of worsening poverty and lack of hope that anything was going to improve in their lifetime. Their experience and skills are a huge loss.

Licensing regulations for day cares require workers to have ECE certification and additional training for those working with infants and toddlers. Acting in opposition to these standards, we have a provincial government which not only refuses to support high-quality training programs but also will not adequately fund centres and their staff. So, if the regulations are enforced, centres have to close; if they are not enforced, children will potentially be at risk from poorly trained staff.

And now, to top it all off, we hear that, large, corporate-owned, for-profit day cares will now be eligible for government funding for capital projects. With non-profit centres struggling, I can't even imagine how for-profit centres will pay off their shareholders unless they further downgrade wages and standards of care. And how many parents, forced to work to keep a roof over their heads, will have no choice but to close their eyes and pray nothing bad happens to their kids?

We all know there will be billions of dollars of "surplus" money in B.C. coffers at the end of this fiscal year. I want the government to invest that money in our young children and our young families by develop really good, not-for-profit, community run child-care services run by well-trained, well-paid ECE staff. Invest the rest of the surplus in housing for low income families. What a wonderful legacy that would create for us all and for future generations….

If you agree, phone or send a letter to Premier Campbell, Minister of State for Child Care, Linda Reid and our MLA, Katrine Conroy, urging them to make community-based, non-profit child-care services a priority in B.C. And if they don't listen, maybe we need to start thinking about some more creative actions to get the government to understand just how vitally important an issue this is.