Women’s organizations and live-in caregiver advocacy groups to call on provincial government to address urgent childcare crisis
July 1, 2009
Grassroots Women

Local women’s organizations and live-in caregivers advocacy groups will be holding a joint press conference to call on the newly-elected provincial B.C. government, the appointed provincial cabinet, the shadow cabinet and the opposition parties to take immediate action to address the urgent childcare crisis in the province.  The groups will also reiterate their call to scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program as the government’s “de-facto” national childcare program.  The press conference will be held on Friday, July 3 at 10:00 a.m. at the Grassroots Women office ..

“We are extremely disappointed that childcare was not seriously addressed by any of the parties as an important issue in the recent election,” says Merryn Edwards, Vice-Chair of Grassroots Women – B.C.  “The continuing lack of affordable and accessible childcare is a major cause of women and children’s poverty and is also a barrier to working women’s equality and their full participation in our society,” she says.

While Ontario recently announced plans to implement all-day kindergarten for children ages 3-5, the Liberal provincial B.C. government announced this will not be happening in B.C. any time soon due citing high costs and the economic crisis.

“Rather than more government cut-backs to badly-needed social programs such as childcare, now more than ever is the time when the government should take serious action to address the childcare crisis in this province and across Canada,” says Edwards. “Without accessible and affordable childcare working women are forced back into their homes unable to fully participate in the economic, social, political and cultural spheres of our society.”

“Since 1992 Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) has been taking advantage of the economic situation in the Philippines,” says Jocelyn Vergabera, a member of SIKLAB, a Filipino migrant workers organization. “The hiring of Filipino live-in caregivers benefits only the needs of middle and upper-class Canadian families leaving working class women and migrant women with little to no childcare options,” she says.

Vergabera came into Canada through the LCP.  “I left my own children in the Philippines in the care of others for the chance to come to Canada,” says Vergabera. “We expect a better life in Canada but many of us find ourselves working and living in deplorable working conditions and suffer the negative long-term impacts of the LCP on our families,” she says.

“Not only is the LCP extremely exploitative, it also does not address the childcare needs of the majority of Canadian women,” says Edwards. “We are joining together to call on government to address the urgent childcare crisis without resorting to the exploitation of Third World women,” she says.

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