BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, Winter 2016

Action on child care

BC FORUM has strongly welcomed the BC NDP’s plan to bring affordable child care to B.C. “This is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed,” said Diane Wood, President of BC FORUM. “We’ve been fighting for quality, affordable child care for decades. We fought for it as members of our unions. Today, many years later, the need is even more acute.”

Wood said the lack of affordable child care steals opportunities from working families, and prevents many parents from contributing their skills to our economy.

“We had a very emotional debate on child care at this year’s Annual General Meeting. Grandparents who are looking after their children’s children are wondering how many more years they can continue,” she said.

The burden of inadequate child care falls on all generations, said Wood.

While acknowledging that a provincial child care program would have significant start-up costs, Wood said this is more than repaid in early education benefits to children, economic stimulus, and long-term returns to government.

“It’s a money maker,” said Wood, citing research published in 2012 by the Research Chair in Taxation and Public Finance, Université de Sherbrooke.

The authors found that Quebec’s affordable child care program made it possible for 70,000 more women to take long term jobs, increasing the provincial GDP by $5.1 billion. The tax-transfer return to government significantly exceeds the cost of subsidies.

The report concluded that universal child care improves the lives of children and families, and is “a profitable enterprise” for all levels of government.

The BC NDP says the Christy Clark government’s failure to invest in affordable universal child care has created a crisis for working families. “It’s time families have affordable,

universal child care in B.C. We’re going to work toward a $10-a-day program. It’s the right thing to do for our kids, for working families and for our economy,” said NDP Leader John Horgan.

“Parents are paying some of the highest child care fees in the country. Too many parents can’t find child care and spend years on waitlists,” he said.

Roughly 20 percent of children have access to regulated childcare. Fees in the Lower Mainland can run to over $1200 per month.

“Lack of affordable, quality child care prevents parents from participating in the labour force. B.C.’s business and labour sectors agree with New Democrats that the Clark government’s ongoing neglect of child care makes it difficult for businesses to attract women, young families and skilled workers.”

B.C. mothers’ participation rates are the second lowest in Canada. Forty percent of B.C. families report that a parent could not return to work at the end of parental leave due to lack of childcare spaces.