Our children deserve quality childcare
Nelson Daily News
April 28, 2008
Editorial By: Janet Leahy, Former Child Care Subsidy Worker

To the Editor:

Open letter to the Honourable Linda Reid, Minister of State for Child Care.

My grandson needs quality childcare. Quality childcare will help to make my grandson a healthy, happy, independent, and responsible person. Quality childcare will prepare my grandson for school entrance and enhance his entire educational future and his adult life.

However, right now in this province we are in a childcare crisis! We do not have enough childcare spaces because we do not have enough Early Childhood Education program graduates. We do not have enough ECE graduates because people cannot afford to work in the ECE field due to poor wages. Childcare centres cannot afford to pay acceptable wages due to inadequate funding. Childcare centres cannot retain or recruit ECE staff unless they can offer them the appropriate wages and benefits that they deserve.

Parents have the most important and responsible job in our society - raising their children to be healthy, confident, and socially responsible individuals. Most parents must work to provide for their families and need access to quality child care to enable them to work.

Not everyone realizes that the lack of quality childcare affects all of us. A healthy, vibrant community attracts families that bring their strengths and work skills to local employers struggling to 'stay alive'. We cannot attract families to our community if the most needed support of quality child care isn't here!

We all need to speak up for our children and our grandchildren. We need to speak up for ALL of our community's children.

Early childhood educators are amazing people! They are hard working and very dedicated to the children they care for and should be recognized for their skills and dedication with appropriate wages and supports. Governments know the importance of quality child care and must provide the necessary funding to resolve this current and ongoing crisis.

Investing in our children now will pay dividends for a lifetime! And the sooner we make this investment, the better!