Advocates ready to fight for national Child care

Thursday’s front page story in the Daily News turned its attention to the subject of child care and the continuing battle by child care advocates, to change the direction of the federal Conservative government.

Morna Ballantyne of the National Code Blue for Child Care Campaign spoke at a luncheon for local child care providers on Wednesday; the Daily News recounted her thoughts and provided some background on the always hot issue.

CHILD CARE SYSTEM WORTH FIGHTING FOR, SAY ADVOCATES
National campaign leaders in Rupert to call for Canada wide child care
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Pages one and two

The federal government may have taken a swipe at the building blocks of a national child care system but advocates believe the opposition will start building it again.

Speaking yesterday at a luncheon for Prince Rupert child care providers, community groups and politicians, Morna Ballantyne of the National Code Blue for Child Care Campaign said the voice of people wanting to see a national child care system is getting louder.

And that gives her hope.

“Child care is one of the few issues at the federal level that the three opposition parties are united on,” she said.

“And they’ve adopted, at the committee stage, a federal child care program.”

Child care took a blow when the Conservative government cancelled a funding agreement with the provinces.

Instead, they now send parents cheques for $100 to help pay for child care costs.

In response to the loss of the federal transfer, British Columbia in turn cut its funding for child care centres. In June, parents can expect to see an increase in fees for child care as the provincial Child Care Operating Fund will be reduced.

“The Code Blue Campaign goal is to try and give a voice to the millions of Canadians who support early childhood education,” said Ballantyne.

“We need to use the opportunity of the next federal election to continue to put pressure on those parties and get them to vote to invest the $1.2 billion needed to make universal child care available to all children.”

Research has shown that early childhood education, especially up until the age of six years, is very important for children.

Rita Chudnovski of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of British Columbia said the $100 a month cheque being sent by the federal government to families is a poor replacement for a national child care system.

“Even countries with economies nowhere near as good as ours provide quality child care,” said Chudnovski.

“B. C. is the only province that is cutting child care services. All the other provinces have found a way… to at least maintain child care spending.”

“This reflects a provincial government, that unless someone else is willing to pay the bills, is not committed to building a child care system,” said Chudnovski.

Both Chudnovski and Ballantyne encouraged people to take up the issue with their MLA’s and MP’s during the summer months when the house and legislature are not in session.

“We have to make it clear to politicians over the summer that they haven’t ground us down,” said Chuvnoski.

The meeting in the afternoon was followed with a potluck dinner at the Nisga’a Hall in recognition of May as Child Care Month.

Our city’s future could rest on having a decent place to have snacks and a nap!

What is described as a critical shortage of child care spaces in Prince Rupert is being touted as a possible stumbling block to the city’s growth.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Rupert bound migrants find frustration in their quest for daycare spaces in the city, many of whom are described as stunned at the lack of spaces available. That at least is the situation that has been presented by the operators of local Child Care centers, who recounted telephone conversations with parents from far off destinations, seeking out information about the current state of day care in Prince Rupert.

The local operators have called on the federal government to not cut funding for child care and are looking for assistance from the school board and the community in their bid to get their message across.

Suggesting that the city’s future growth may suffer is certainly an interesting approach, which if nothing else, will certainly get them the higher profile that they are looking for.

The Daily News featured their concerns and interpretations on the front page of Monday’s Daily News.

LACK OF CHILD CARE SPACES HURTS WOULD-BE MIGRANTS
People looking to move to city are stunned by lack of child care spaces
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, April 16, 2007
Pages one and three

Prince Rupert’s critical shortage of child care spaces could hamper the city’s ability to attract and retain qualified employees in the future, said advocates of Prince Rupert’s child care community.

“Having high-quality child care is of economic value to the community,” said Emily Mlieczko of the Westview Child Care Centre.

“Even at my own centre, we are getting weekly calls from families that want to move here, come to our schools but they are looking for after school care.

“We have to tell them ‘no in our community there are not enough spaces available.”

Mlieczko, Judy Riddell, of the Berry Patch Child Care Resource and Referral, and Anna Falvo, Early Childhood Education Special Needs, spoke at a school board meeting last week about the huge lack of child care spaces in the community.

Mlieczko noted Westview is getting calls from families in New York, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and the Lower Mainland wanting to know if spaces are available.

“They asked us if there is any place we can put our children and we had to say no we can’t accommodate you,” she said.

Judy Riddell said it is imperative that the school board helps lobby the federal government not to cut funding for child care, especially given that quality child care helps prepare children to enter the school system.

“Nobody really knows how many children there are after they are born until they get into the school district,” said Riddell. “And we don’t really know where they are located.”

However, in order to get a handle on the shortage, Riddell took kindergarten enrollment and the first grand and extrapolated to see where the children are living.

She then looked at the number of spaces available for different age groups in licenced child care.

Based on 2005 numbers and using a very low estimate that 40 per cent of children have working parents who need child care, in the infant toddler category, there are less than half the spaces available for the community needs.

“Based on data from across Canada, people are saying 60 to 70 per cent of women with children are working,” said Riddell.

“Even making this conservative estimate, there is a huge lack of spaces.”

The city could use at least 32 more infant toddler child care spaces in Prince Rupert today, said Riddell, noting there are only 20 spaces available.

In the one-to two-year old category, Prince Rupert has 24 spaces and needs 77 more.

For ages three to five, there are 83 spaces and 117 more are needed, for six- to 10-year olds, there are 50 spaces and 233 more are needed.

There is also a serious lack of pre-school facilities.

There are 185 spaces and 404 more are needed.

“And there is absolutely no after-hours care available here,” she said.

The board members unanimously agreed to send a letter of support for child care funding to the federal government.

Restoration of Funding brings good news for Berry Patch

A few weeks ago it looked rather dire for the Berry Patch, a local child care referral service that had come under some rather severe budgetary cuts from Victoria and was in the process of preparing to close the doors.

However, a change of direction for the Provincial Government will bring an expected return of the majority of funding that was to be lost returned to the community groups, allowing them to continue on with their work across the province.

While they're not quite out of the woods yet, it would appear that the province wide backlash against the provincial government's original plan has had some effect, with the wider issue of child care in the province yet to be tackled.

Still, it's a good first step to try and get everyone back on the same page of the issue, a return of the funding needed to provide the services to those that need them most is a wise decision on the part of Victoria.

The Daily News featured the latest development as the front page lead story in Friday's paper.

BERRY PATCH FUTURE BRIGHTER AS MOST CUT FUNDING RESTORED
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Friday, March 02, 2007
Page one

The Berry Patch Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) program appears to have been saved after the province announced it would return most of the funding it had planned to cut from the budget. On behalf of Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid, ministry bureaucrats informed operators this week that a reduction from $14 million to $3 million for the centres announced in January would not be enacted and instead $9 million in funding would continue to be provided on an ongoing basis.

“I’m reasonably confident,” said Judy Riddell of the likelihood her organization will continue to operate for North Coast parents. “It’s a good step — I’m very happy the CCRR’s have been acknowledged as being useful and the majority of the funding has been replaced, but I think it’s just the start, it’s a piece of a larger puzzle.”

CCRR’s will enter into discussion with the ministry next week to find out exactly what their economic future will look like —there’s been no guarantees made that the centres will simply be handed 70 per cent of their budgets back — and Riddell remains hopeful other concerns about the province’s child care climate will be addressed.

“I’m still interested in the bigger picture. There’s still some other cuts that haven’t been addressed, which are the operating funding cuts and the capital construction grants that have been cut pending what the federal government comes up with,” she said.

“Those are very important to Prince Rupert. We’ve got a critical situation with lack of child care right now, and should we grow at all with this port facility, which every body’s anticipating, we’re going to be in an even worse state of affairs.

“Some of the group child care providers are telling me even now they’re getting calls from out-of-town people and they can’t place them, we haven’t been able to place people ... for three months.”

It is that reality that has some, like North Coast MLA Gary Coons, still highly concerned about the future for child care locally.

“The B.C. Liberals have been trying to mislead British Columbians with the idea that they support child care, when in fact they were pulling the rug out from under our child care system with a set of cuts to child care, including reductions in operating funds,” he said. “Did this government realize the impacts that their cuts would have, or is this just more political posturing?

“This will do nothing for the critical child care shortage in the Prince Rupert area. Parents will have to pay more, work less or send their children to unregulated centres, putting our young ones at risk.”

The NDP still remain unhappy with the $5 million in cuts CCRR’s will face and what they call a lack of a comprehensive child care strategy from the government. According to the province, the problem should be placed at the feet of the federal government for its elimination of the $455 Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreement. Funds were sent directly to parents instead, although they have been categorized as inadequate by some.

Child care oversights have critics’ attention.

The Liberal budget announced on Tuesday is missing one very important group of citizens say critics. As Child care gets put on the back burner as part of a federal provincial spat over funding, concerned groups are suggesting that the province needs to reassess its position and take some pro active action to ensure quality child care is available to all British Columbians.

They’re concerns were outlined in the Thursday edition of the Daily News.

LACK OF CHILD CARE ‘VISION’ SLAMMED BY CRITICS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Page one and three

While the provincial budget is being applauded for tax cuts and millions new housing, critics are blasting the government for doing it on the back of child care services.

“While it’s good to see increases (to social services) rather than cuts, the tax cuts show that the government can afford to improve the services that British Columbians rely on,’ said Ken Davidson, CUPE B. C. vice-president.

“It’s not good enough to simply blame the federal government for child care cuts. The fact is that we can afford child care, British Columbian families need child care, but it’s not a priority for the Liberals.

North Coast MLA Gary Coons told the B. C. Legislature on Tuesday that the province’s handling of child care challenges was “negligent” and reflects a government that’s both “irresponsible and lacking in vision.”

The failure of the premier and the Liberals to acknowledge child care illustrates the government’s complete irresponsibility and lack of vision when it comes to challenges facing B. C. families.” Coons told the Legislature in response to the budget.

”B. C. was the only province in Canada that didn’t make an effort to negotiate with the federal government to maintain funding, and B. C is the only province in Canada to bring in cuts as a result.

“That’s shameful.”

Coons spoke of the effects the cuts will have across the Northwest if the Berry Patch closes and also of the impact closing the Queen Charlotte Child Care Resource and Referral Centre will have on the islands. He also attacked the government for failing to deal with the critical shortage of child care spaces in Prince Rupert.

“The end result of this government’s ignoring of British Columbians will be no new spaces for Prince Rupert and an explosion of illegal child care situations, once again putting children at risk,” he said. “This type of Liberal neglect is one reason why British Columbia still has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, despite high commodity prices and increased government revenues.”

On Jan. 5, Child Care Resource and Referral centres were cut 77 per cent, effectively closing most of them.

There is talk of regional centres being opened in their place.

Grants that offer operating costs for licensed day care facilities were also cut 27 per cent. The province blames the Government of Canada for cancelling provincial-federal child care agreements.

In lieu of those agreements, parents were individually sent funds.