After years on the back pages, child care is once again on the agenda. The federal government is talking about a national child care plan and the federal budget included $935 million for early learning and child care. On March 13th, federal/provincial/territorial Ministers agreed to spend these funds over the next 5 years to improve access to affordable, regulated, quality child care programs.
Here in BC, however, we are moving in the opposite direction, cutting money from child care and "restructuring" child care funding in ways that erode access.
Children and youth
According to a report the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released last week Nova Scotia is performing very poorly on the issue of reducing child poverty. The most recent Statistics Canada numbers confirm we are behind many provinces whether we look at before or after tax family incomes. By chance, the release of the report coincided with announcements by the Hamm government of cuts to government services. Nova Scotians have also been told to expect another round of cuts in next Spring's budget.
"I have tried 5 different babysitters. I wish I could send my child back to the daycare centre; he loved it there - but when we lost the subsidy we had to leave. We can barely pay our rent and buy food."
With a federal campaign on, promises are flying faster than the puck at a playoff game. Most recently, Paul Martin pledged several billion dollars for child care over the next five years. This isn't the first time federal Liberals have promised major action on child care. Canada's kids deserve a government that will deliver.
Inside this issue:
A Bad Time to be Poor
May is Child Care Month, but BC has nothing to celebrate
How do we measure success? The BC Welfare Exit Surveys
Inside this issue:
Putting Kids to Work: The Deregulation of Child Labour in BC
Turning Our Backs on Vulnerable Children and Youth
Early Childhood Development: Lessons from Vancouver
Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Education
HALIFAX: A report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives finds that Canada and Nova Scotia have lost ground in efforts to reduce child poverty. "Promises to Keep: The Nova Scotia Child Poverty Report Card 2003" finds that child poverty today is worse than it was in 1989 when Canadian parliamentarians determined that child poverty should end by the year 2000. According to the report, in 1989 16% of Nova Scotian children lived in poverty. More than a decade later almost 19.2% children in Nova Scotia live in poverty.