See text below.
EXCERPTS
The child care centre at Camosun College remains in danger of being closed, at a time when the college is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on setting up a new sports centre on the Interurban campus.
It's a move that parallels what's happening province-wide, with a B.C. Liberal government under premier Gordon Campbell cutting back on social service spending for the last few years, including childcare subsidies, while committing to host the winter Olympics in 2010.
"Their priorities just aren't in the right place it seems," says Louise Oetting, the chief steward for the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing the 24 people who work in the college's child care centre. "I don't get the impression the administration is committed to saving it."
At a February 21 meeting, the board of governors, gave a task force on child care 30 days to come up with a "workable" plan.
"It's an access issue for students," says Oetting. "If you get rid of the child care centre it's just another level of service that's taken away for parents who want to get an education."
Federally, social development minister Ken Dryden is promising $5 billion to support quality child care like what's in place at Camosun. At the February 21 meeting, the board agreed to send Dryden a letter asking for help. Says Oetting, "That's the first step they've taken to look for extra money."
Meanwhile, to support the proposed sports facility, she says, the college has spent $197,000 on a feasibility study and another $300,000 for "initiatives and lobbying" which includes things like trying to get land removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve. For that amount of money, she adds, "They could have, in essence, kept our daycare centre open for at least another two years."
- reprinted from the Monday Magazine [Victoria]