Man skating province for child care; Day-care worker stops in Trail to spread message
Trail Daily Times
26 May 2009
By: Raymond Masleck

Bret Hernando loves kids and likes to cheer for the underdog, so when it came time to choose a career, child-care made sense….

He is in-line skating around the province to raise awareness of child-care issues, the biggest of which is government funding.

"My primary campaign is for a national child-care system," said the 25-year-old during a stop in Trail Monday. "I believe that is the solution to many problems around child care."

Child-care advocates have been lobbying for national funding and standards for years. In 2004, the Liberal government committed $5 billion over five years to improve child-care access, but was voted out of office before it implemented the pledge.

The result is uneven standards and mostly limited access to day care across the country, Hernando said. While parents pay only $7 a day per child in Quebec, in Vancouver the cost for a toddler runs from $700 to $1,200 a month, Hernando said.

"I'm not campaigning for day care, I'm campaigning for choice. If people want to stay home and raise their families that's fine. But if they want to work, there should be day care available - and it should be cheap."…

Area child-care advocates who met with him told the Times that local demand far outstrips supply, particularly for babies.

"People are going back to work after their maternity leaves and there is no infant care available," said Lynn Proulx, director of Sunshine Children's Centre. "I've had two callers today looking for infant care and it's not noon yet."

Sunshine has 24 spaces, six of which are for infants and toddlers, at its East Trail centre, which has no room for expansion.

"We have a waiting list with over a 100 names," Proulx said.

The non-profit society also runs after-school care programs for 20 students each at St. Michael's and Fruitvale schools.

Sue McIntosh, of the Child Care Referral and Resource Centre, said there are typically one or two spaces available around Greater Trail at any given time, but they are usually open because they "don't meet the needs of families.

"They need infant care. They need care for shift work and on weekends, and there are no spaces available."

Proulx and McIntosh are called for a national strategy and funding to provide better access.