Skating for childcare
Cariboo Press - Merritt Herald
08 May 2009
By: Chris Koehn

Bret Hernando plans to spend the next four months inline skating around B.C. to promote childcare awareness, and spread a message declaring national childcare a necessity.

A certified childcare professional, Hernando left his job in Vancouver to pursue the challenge of skating … I thought it was perfect timing to skate across B.C. now because of the provincial election," he said.

With voters focusing on platforms and election issues, Hernando said he hopes to get his message out there, and when he arrives in Victoria this September to complete his B.C. tour, he said he'd like the opportunity to voice his opinion to the newly elected government.

Hernando said that the major problem hindering quality childcare is a lack of funding, which translates into a lack of space, staff, training and wages. Each has an impact on the quality and accessibility of childcare, he explained.

Ultimately, he said, he would like to see a federal mandate stating that each province must have it's own system, if not an adequate national program. He added the rest of the country could learn from Quebec's childcare model, which, he said, has sufficient funding to make it cheap for parents and provide trained staff to maintain quality. Currently Canada is last among first-world nations in childcare and learning, he said.

"To say that we have a system of childcare today is really a stretch. We don't really have one. Until we do, Canadians will have inadequately cared for and educated children, families and communities."

Hernando began his tour on April 25, in Princeton, headed for Merritt. He left at 7 a.m., encountered snowy conditions at the top of the connector highway and needed a ride down the hill into Merritt. …

His website, http://www.inlinewithchildcare.ca  contains maps of his tour, a travel journal, photos …