LOCAL DAY-CARE
vocates are reacting
cautiously to the federal
government child-care pro-
gram announced Dec. 3.

ad-

By MIC
Reporter

Key comiponents of the seven-
year $5.4 billion program unveiled
by federal Health Minister Jake
Epp include the doubling of the
maximum deduction for receipted
child-care costs to $4,000, up from
$2,000 for a child aged six and
under, or a_ child

with special
needs: the removal of the current
limit of $8,000 on allowable

deductions per family; a $200 in-
crease, phased in over two years,
of the refundable Child Tax Credit
for lower and middle income
parents caring for children at home
or who may have non-receipted,
child-care expenses; a $100 million
fund for child-care research; a $3
billion commitment to create

200,000 new non-profit, day-care

spaces across the country on a

cost-sharing basis with the pro-

vinces.

Epp plans to have the program
in place by April 1, 1988.

But the creation of new spaces
hinges on provincial participation
in cost sharing. B.C. currently
does not have a fund for financing
new day-care facilities.

“We're concerned about the
way the funding will be
distributed,’’ said Lois Rennie,
spokesperson for, the B.C.
Preschool Teachers’ Association
(BCPTA) and an early childhood
education instructor. at North
Vancouver's Capilano College.

““We support licenced and
monitored day care. The money
does not seem to be opening any
new spaces in day care. We would
like the money to go to operating
and capital funding. For example,
it is critically important to have
more spaces for children under
three and more special needs

spaces,”’ Rennie said.

According to B.C. Daycare Ac-
tion Coalition figures, there are
currently about 200,000 day-care
aged children in B.C. There are
15,714 licenced, group day-care
spaces in the province and 4,806
in-home family day-care spaces.

In B.C., non-profit spaces make
up 72.6 per cent versiss 27.4 per
cent private. The majority of
B.C. children are in a family en-
vironment where the caregiver does
not have a licence. Nine per cent of
B.C. children are in licenced care,

According to North Shore

Health Department records there
are currently 25 Jicenced full-time,
group day cares for children aged
three to five years on the North
Shore. Two are in West Vancouver
and 23 are in North Vancouver.

There are six licenced, group day
cares in North Vancouver and one
in West Vancouver that include
programs for children aged 18
months to three years.

Offering the only type of local
licenced day care for infants, there
are 46 North Vancouver in-home
family day cares and one in West
Vancouver. The licence allows care
for an infant under one and two
children under two years of age at
any one time for a maximum of
five preschoolers and two children
aged six to 12.

The North Shore has three
special needs day cares; al] are in
North Vancouver.

Shirley Derocher, North Shore
Health Department coordinator of

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

aker elected to GV

community child care facilities-
licensing, expects growth in spaces
available at in-home family day
cares. ’*‘We have been inundated
with applications for in-home fam-
ily day care. A lot of it is en-
trepreneurship — people seeing a
need. It also has to do with the In-

3 - Friday, December Lt, 1987 - North Shore News

CHILD-CARE ADVOCATES REACT CAUTIOUSLY TG NEW FEDERAL PROGRAM

'
many parents need to work.”

B.C, Daycare Action Coalition
spokesperson Mab Oloman wei-
comed the funding infusion, but
expressed concern over the large
chunk of money dedicated to
deductions.

Said Oloman: ‘‘We don’t feel

BOUG COLLINS COMMENTS ON PROGRAM: SEE PAGE 9

troduction to Family Day Care
program offered at Capilano Col-
lege since last fall,”’ she said.

But Rernie said a lack of
monitored and licenced day-care
support remains a critical issue.

“The BCPTA is concerned that
what is being provided for is quali-
ty and accessible care. Since 1983,
70 per cent of women between the
ages of 20 and 44 are working out-
side of the home. This is a new
phenomenon, This is the first
generation for many families who
are using day care. The reality is

post

Jake Epp has been upfront about
how much real new money is com-
ing in. Two billion dollars of the
$5.4 billion is going into tax
measures. The remaining $3 billion
plus is supposed to be going into
capital cost sharing. We already
know $3 billion goes into subsidies
and that’s being transferred.”’
Oloman would like to see start-
up funding available from the
province and daily operating
grants passed directly on to the day
cares. :
“For example, the average cost

NEWS photo Terry Peters

JANET MACDONALD, Capilano College Day Care Centre supervisor, looks on as Scan, Jeremy and Erin play with a train set at the North Van-
couver centre. The federal government has been laying some tracks of its own with a recently announced $5.4 billion national child care stratepy.

of day care in Canada is $18 per
day. The federal government could
give'a $5 per diem and the pro-
vince could give a $5 per diem,
leaving $8 to be passed on to the
parents. This would address people
in the middle income level.

“As things stand, the lower in-
come people can get the subsidies
and the upper income families
benefit most from tax measures,’’
she said. .

Janet MacDonald, Capilano
College Day Care Centre super-
visor, shares Oloman’s assessment.

“It he new child care program)
will give some parents a larger
deduction for income tax, but a lot
get nothing from jt because they
have no income. It’s not actually
going to mean too much for too
many people.”*

The community day-care centre
has 25 full-time spots for children
aged two to four.

INDEX.

NORTH VANCOUVER District Mayor Marilyn Baker was
elected Wednesday as deputy chairman of the Greater Van-
couver Regional District’s (GVRD) 26-member board of

Classified: Ads. .
Doug Collins...... 98

NORTH
Mayor Marilyn Baker...clected as
deputy chairman of the GYRD's
26-member board of directors.

Vancouver District

directors.

Baker defeated New
Westminster Mayor Tom Baker in
board voting to win the one-year
term.

The GVRD board also clected
Richmond Mayor Gil Blair as its
new chairman.

Baker, who has been on the
GVRD board of directors for th
past five years and has helped
spearhead regional organization of
such problems as garbage, danger-
ous goods transportation and
economic development, said she
was encouraged to run for the
position by other board members
and was pleased she had won.

GVRD spokesman Bud Elsie
said, as far as he knew, Baker was

the first woman to hold the deputy
chairmanship in the GVRD's 20-
year history.

North Vancouver City Mayor
Jack Loucks held the position
from July 1983 to Decernber 1984.

Baker said North Shore
municipalitics and other GVRD
members must, over the next year,
tackle a number of major issues,
including plans for overhaul of
municipal water and = waste
systems, installation of a 911
emergency telephone system and
reaflocation of GVRD_ electoral
areas.

The GVRD represents 16 Lower
Mainland municipalities and three
electoral areas. ,

Weather:
Friday and Saturday,
mainly sunny. Highs near.
12°C, —

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