VANCOUVER, Feb. 10, 2013 /CNW/ - Over 3,000 BC families are marking the
province's first family day holiday by urging the government to commit
to implementing a new $10 a day childcare system.
"On BC's first family day holiday, the government should recognize that
young families are financially squeezed. Paying for childcare - when
it's even available - is like having to pay for housing twice," says
BCGEU President Darryl Walker. Childcare costs an average of $9,000 per
year for a two year old; in Vancouver it's $14,000. However, there is
only one licensed childcare space for every five children in BC.
"BC has a childcare crisis: exorbitant fees, not enough spaces and poor
working conditions in the sector. We have a solution: a community plan
to cap childcare fees to $10 a day and improve early childhood
education," says Walker. High fees and lack of childcare spaces means
that BC mothers with children under 15 have the lowest labour force
participation rate in the whole country. Both the Surrey and Burnaby
Boards of Trade have endorsed the $10 a day childcare plan.
In communities across the province, child care workers have collected
over 3,000 signed postcards from BC families asking the government to
commit to implementing a community plan that proposes a new system of
affordable, accessible, publicly funded early care and learning.
Municipalities, boards of education, and labour unions - including the
BCGEU - also support the $10 a day childcare plan.
For BC family day, the BCGEU is launching a series of online videos and
a website at www.cantaffordchildcare.ca where families can petition the government and the official opposition
to commit to implementing $10 a day childcare.
The BCGEU is the leading childcare union in British Columbia,
representing over 1,500 Early Childhood Educators in 150 bargaining
units, ranging from small not-for-profit daycare societies to large
institutional childcare centres at UBC, SFU and the YMCA.
Source: http://www.bcgeu.ca/family_day_childcare_130211
SOURCE: B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union
