NDP Raising -- and touring -- B.C.; Party aims to find out from the public what's wrong with system
The Province
March 9, 2008
By: John Bermingham

Call it the Conversation on Child Care.

The B.C. New Democrats are embarking on a road trip around the province to figure out what's wrong with child care.

"It's critical that we have a quality child-care system in B.C.," said NDP leader Carole James on Friday….

"We need to know what the situation is out there right now," she said. "We want to hear directly from the people who are feeling the impacts."

The "Raising B.C." tour starts March 13 in Duncan and Nanaimo, and ends May 22 in Vancouver.

An accompanying website has been launched at http://www.raisingbc.ca so parents can share their child-care stories online.

James said the findings will form a white paper on child care, along with a heated question period in the B.C. legislature.

"What you have now is parents scrambling, trying to find child care, when all of the child-care system is full," said James. "People cannot find quality care."

NDP child-care critic Claire Trevena figures there are 11,000 parents on the wait list for child care.

Parents are routinely forking out $1,000 a month for a single child, and some smaller communities, such as Kamloops, Ladysmith and Revelstoke, have too little or no child care.

"They will go to neighbours, go to friends," said Trevena. "There's an assumption your family and friends will look after your child."

Part of the problem is a staffing shortage of early childhood educators. NDP spokesmen say the educators are paid about $15 per hour on average.

A January survey by a Vancouver advocacy group found that 90 per cent of child-care employers are finding it hard to hire and retain these workers.

James wants a universal child-care system in B.C., but doesn't yet know how much that would finally cost.

She criticized the B.C. government's "piecemeal approach" to funding child care…

The Coalition of Childcare Advocates of B.C. said last year it would cost $1.2 billion over five years to make child care affordable….