WHEREAS Vancouver City Council unanimously voted to urge Prime Minister Paul Martin to keep his election promise to establish a national child care program that is committed to standards of quality, universality, accessibility and developmental programming; AND WHEREAS the City of Vancouver called on Mr. Martins government to begin the allocation of the promised funding of 5 billion over five years in the 2004-2005 budget years; AND WHEREAS Vancouver City Council has highlighted the problems for the City that are the result of the BC government using federal child care dollars to replace provincial funding, reducing child care subsidies to low income families, and allocating early childhood education and child care dollars to the education component to the detriment of the child care system; AND WHEREAS a recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study concluded that Canadas child care system is a failure, calling it fragmented, expensive and often providing little more than babysitting services though costing parents 20 percent or more of their income; AND WHEREAS a recent student showed that child care workers are paid only half the average wage in Canada; AND WHEREAS nine out of 10 Canadians believe a national child care system is essential to the nations prosperity; AND WHEREAS a government-operated and funded child care system that is affordable and accessible to all children similar to the 7day child care system now operating in Quebec promotes womens equality in the workforce, in school or in job training; AND WHEREAS the federal Minister of Social Development, Ken Dryden, after meeting with his provincial counterparts in November to negotiate the terms of a federal-provincial agreement on child care, refused to commit to a universal system, government support for primarily non-profit and licensed care, or accountability mechanisms enshrined in legislation; AND WHEREAS Minister Hagen issued a news release after the meeting that said that the agreed upon principles respond to BCs commitment to choice for families, and to targeting families most in need: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities urge the federal Ministry of Social Development and the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development to ensure that the promised national child care system is introduced and that it is founded on the federal governments stated QUAD principles of: Quality, Universality, Accessibility and Developmental programming.
Ministry of Children and Family Development On September 29, 2005, British Columbia signed a five-year bilateral agreement with the federal government that will provide 633 million over five years for early learning and child care. Our agreement combines the QUAD principles quality, universally inclusive, accessible, developmental shared by all provincial and territorial governments and the federal government; plus the British Columbia principles of choice and flexibility, targeted investments and integrated services. As the federal funding available for early learning and child care is approximately ten percent of the funding required to provide universal child care, funding priorities need to be established. In the coming weeks, British Columbia will release a consultation paper that will detail spending priorities for the first year of the Agreement and will seek advice of stakeholders and interested parties on the development of a detailed action plan for child care. This government recently announced significant investments in the child care subsidy, operating and capital programs. This increase in funding, which will flow from the 2005 Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the federal government, will benefit thousands of families with children under 6 in regulated child care and provide additional support for child care providers. Depending on individual circumstances, the child care subsidy income threshold will increase from 21,000 to 38,000, and the subsidy rate will increase to better reflect the actual cost of care. Subsidy changes are expected to cost about 19 million this year. For licensed child care providers, child care operating funding will increase by 36.6 per cent, a 14 million annual increase, to support a steady supply of affordable child care spaces. In addition, we will invest 6 million in expanding the capital funding budget to build and upgrade licensed child care spaces.