Proposed funding cuts for daycare services meet with disapproval from Rupert groups

The plans of the provincial government to cut funding to the Child Care Resource and Referral Centres has been greeted with skepticisim and anger locally. On Tuesday a group of more than 100 took to the streets of Prince Rupert to protest the governments plans and urge for the Liberal government to be more attentive to the needs of the community.

From parents, to children and local child care providers collectively they spoke out to express their frustration with the government and its handling of the day care issue in the province. Locally the focus has been on the Berry Patch, a local resource centre that faces potential closure due to the budgetary changes being implemented by the Provincial government.

The crunch came when the Federal government pulled out of a cost sharing agreement with the provinces, opting instead to deliver its funding through the Universal Child Care Benefit, which goes directly to the parents. With that change in the funding dynamic the Province decided to pull the plug on its funding to local organizations across the province, leading to concerns that those in the most need will now fall between the cracks.

The Daily News featured the story as its Page one Headliner in Wednesday's paper.

PARENTS, CHILD CARE STAFF DEMAND AN END TO CUTS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Pages one and three

More than 100 parents, kids and local child care workers took to the street Tuesday afternoon to demand funding be restored to province’s day care system.

“We’re brought together by a common bond and that’s our children, and we’re here to make sure that we ... have that service that we’ve worked so hard for over the years,” said Farley Stewart, executive director of the Friendship House which operates both a pre-school and a child care centre.

“As our community continues to expand, we need to show the newcomers that come here that we have (not only) the best day care services in Prince Rupert but in the North as well.”

Blaming the cancellation of the Early Learning and Child Care agreement by the federal government — which was replaced with a Universal Child Care Benefit that goes directly to parents instead — the province announced at the beginning of January that funding for Child Care Resource and Referral Centres like The Berry Patch would be slashed dramatically, effectively closing those centres, that operating funds for child care centres would be reduced 27 per cent and that capital funding for additional child care spaces would not be available.

“Ottawa was wrong to renege on its promise, but B.C. still has a responsibility to our children and the cuts are going deep, we’re in a crisis and we have to say enough is enough,” said Emily Mlieczko, early child care educator. “Child care centres will be forced to close or increase fees, waiting lists will rise and the federal and provincial governments have done nothing to address the lack of child care spaces.”

The effect is particularly dire in Prince Rupert because programs locally have traditionally been underfunded — the city didn’t even have a Child Care Resource and Referral Centre until five years ago — and wait lists in some cases exceed two years.

“In Prince Rupert alone, we’re in crisis, people do not have places to bring their children,” she said. “Our child care resource and referral program as of Oct. 1 will be gone. As a child care provider we count on these services to help us maintain our integrity, our professionalism so we can get the proper training, they also help families find facilities, they help families apply for day care subsidies, they help new child care facilities get licences and we won’t have that ... they’ll be gone for the whole province.

“With the upcoming container port and casino and economic development, it’s a huge issue.”
Roosevelt Community School’s principal Steve Riley took the opportunity yesterday to apologize to the community’s children for the way adults across the country were failing them.
“I personally, and I think we as a nation, have let you down,” he said. “All I can say to these kids is that I do have a voice, I do know how to use it and I pledge to do that I will not be quiet on this issue.”

The move to slash the funding is particularly stunning in light of a large scale media event held Monday to promote the three-year countdown to Vancouver’s multi-billion dollar Olympic games and a $2 billion surplus the province doesn’t seem to know what to do with, he said. The provincial NDP have also noted the seemingly unattached surplus and are calling on the government to use it to restore the cuts to B.C.’s child care system.

“The B.C. Liberals should restore child care funding so that no spaces are cut and that the Child Care Resource and Referral Centres can remain open, The Campbell Liberals should also roll back fee increases being imposed on parents,” said North Coast MLA Gary Coons, who took part in a child care rally in Victoria that drew more than a thousand people yesterday.

“B.C. Minister of State for Child care Linda Reid continues to blame the federal government for problems in child care when her government has itself cut child care funding and services which has led to chaos, inefficiency, and lost economic, social, and professional opportunities for B.C. families.”