Excerpts from e-letter:
Dear Supporters of the $10/day Child Care Plan,
We're so pleased to share news about the latest high-profile endorsers of the $10/day Child Care Plan.
In the last few weeks we've welcomed support from the City of Cranbrook, the singer-songwriter Raffi, Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre, the Board Voice Society of BC, the Aboriginal Mother Centre and the BC Francophone Parents Federation. Supporters of the Plan now represent well over 1.6 million British Columbians.
We've also seen many more individual parents, grandparents and educators add their names to the online petition - please encourage your friends and family to sign on too! We have almost 1900 names from 152 communities listed.
Premier Christy Clark is also aware of the success of the $10/day Child care Plan. In her recent letter to us she calls it a "Report with good ideas" and goes on to say it is a cost-factor that is holding government back from embracing the Plan.
Our work now is to help the Premier and other MLA's understand that they do indeed have the funds available to start implementing the $10/day Plan. The latest BC budget already identifies that in 2015, government proposes to use $146 million for tax credits of $55/month per child under 6 years for families earning up to $100,000/year. Yet we all know that $55/month won't buy a child care space, won't replace a parent's income and won't lift a family out of poverty. So, it appears that the issue is not whether or not there are funds. Rather, it's a matter of how best to spend them! For example, with the $146 million already on the table, government could reduce all parent fees in existing infant-toddler licensed child care spaces to $10 a day and still have money left over.
The push to bring BC in line with 5 other Canadian provinces and 2 territories which have already moved child care into the Ministry of Education continues to receive support, including at the recent UBC Human Early Learning Partnership Research Expo where it was it was acknowledged that services for young children need to be more closely aligned with the school system if we are to deal with the growing rate of childhood vulnerability in BC. Find out more about the Human Early Learning Partnership research here.
In the next few weeks we'll be presenting the Plan to the Municipality of Whistler, the City of Nanaimo and City of Oak Bay as well as the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the City of White Rock and City of Port Coquitlam. Please contact us if you live in those communities and want to come and show your support.
Thank you for your ongoing support and please don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
CCCABC and ECEBC