UN report a 'condemnation' of Liberal failures on women's issues: NDP
KRISTEN THOMPSON, METRO VANCOUVER
November 18, 2008

The provincial Liberals should be embarrassed by a new United Nations report that suggests British Columbia is failing women by, among other things, not providing adequate childcare, NDP MLA Claire Trevena said yesterday.

The report, released on Nov. 7 by the UN’s Committee On The Elimination Of Discrimination Against Women, includes 11 pages of observations on the status of women in Canada.

“The Committee is particularly concerned at the impact of the lack of affordable childcare and affordable housing on low-income women with families,” it stated.

“The Committee urges the State party to step up its efforts to provide a sufficient number of affordable childcare spaces.”

Trevena, opposition critic for child care, early childhood education and women’s issues, said the report was essentially “a condemnation by the United Nations.”

“If (the province) doesn’t act upon (the report) it has lost all credibility,” she said.

Norm Macdonald, opposition critic for education, said the province’s throne speech promise to implement all-day kindergarten, which would help relieve the childcare burden on families, seems to have fallen by the wayside.

“There was a lot of excitement because there’s an incredible problem for families with young children looking for child care,” Macdonald said. “It would provide a partial solution to that.”

“But in the last few days the minister of education is signalling a backing away of any sort of movement toward this,” he added.

Shirley Bond, the provincial education minister, said nothing has changed.

“The throne speech said we’d do a feasibility study and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” she said.

….Calls to the minister of childcare weren’t returned by press time.