wore:

UNIVERSAL SYSTEM DEBATE

Middle classes
hit hardest by
day-care costs

RYAN BRASSINGTON’S parents pay $400 a month for
him to attend a North Vancouver licensed day-care centre.
And that is the cost of some rents, noted his mother Diane.

The 34-year-old has been in day
care since he was four-months-old,
because both his parents work full
time.

‘Diane is a manager at Xerox
Service Centre and her husband
Ken works for Dick’s Lumber in
Burnaby.

Because they earn a comfortable
living, the Brassingtons are not
eligible for a provincial day-care
subsidy, which is only available for
low-income families.

“Hf E wasn’t earning as much as
I do, (day-care costs) would be a
source of frustration,’’ said Diane.
“Tt takes a big chunk out of the
paycheque.”’

When it comes to finding ade-
quate day care and affording the
increasingly high costs, the mid-
die class is hardest hit.

To try and address the problem,
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney,
during the 1984 federal election,
promised to provide rapid, realistic
and efficient solutions to the day-
care problem. Canadians will

By KIM PEMBERTON
Contributing Writer

know his solution in the near
future.

On June 30, Health Minister
Jake Epp will reveal the Conser-
vative government’s national day-
care scheme.

A House of Commons commit-
tee report on child care, released in
March, heard from people with
differing views.- Some want a
fully-funded universal plan, on the
scale of medicare, while others
want to end state supported day

_care entirely in the hope of forcing

mothers to stay at home.

Those who favor a day-care-
on-demand system will be disap-
pointed. Epp has said publicly that
a fully subsidized child-care
package would be ‘‘the height of
irresponsibility’? because of the
costs. +

But Epp has also said he was
disappointed that the Commons

i

?

EE

3 - Friday, May 29, 1987 - North Shore News

NEWS photo Tom Burley

DIANE, 3¥:-year-old Ryan and Ken Brassington are one of the countless families awaiting the June 30 unveil-
ing of the federal government’s new national day-care scheme. Because both parents work full time, Ryan has
been in the local day-care system since he was four months old. The middle class-income family is not eligible

for a provincial day-care subsidy.

report did not suggest ways to in-.
crease available day-care space.

The Commons report recom-
mends a child-care package of tax
credits, operating grants and
parental-leave benefits costing
$700 million in its first year. (The
current federal day-care budget is
$225 million).

In addition to the tax credits, the
report calls for federal-provincial
cost sharing to provide operating
grants to licenced day-care centres,

_ $tart-up grants for the creation of

new day-care spaces and grants for
disabled children. It recommends

LGH PRESIDENT RETIRES. | .

THE GOOD health of Lions Gate Hospital administration
will be given a severe test at the end of September when the
hospital’s current president officially retires. .

John Borthwick has led the

- 700-bed LGH for the past 11 years

through what has’ been a complex
period of exploding medical tech-
nology) and. shrinking hospital
budgets. :

“‘He’s been a great leader, but a
subtle one,’? LGH Board vice-

"By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

Warne said the current high
morale of LGH staff coupled with
the minimal amount of labor-
management confrontation over

_ the past 11 years at a hospital that

is 97 per cent unionized are both
results of Borthwick’s leadership.
Chief of. LGH’s medical staff
Dr. Stewart Madill said Borthwick
is one of the most highly respected
hospital administrators in Canada.

“And he’s always had the
respect of the medical staff here,’’
Madill said. ‘‘He will be very dif-
ficult to replace.’’ ‘

’ But the 60-year-old Borthwick
shrugs off accolades with charac-
teristic candor, ‘I’m just a dumb
administrator. All | know is how
to try and put things together.’’

Borthwick, who has worked
steadily in health care since he was
21, said there was no _ single
deciding factor in his decision to
retire: ‘‘l just decided it was
time.” ; :

After graduating from the Uni-
versity of British Columbia’ in
1948, Borthwick began his career
at Essondale (now Riverview)

creating services for stay-at-home
parents and teenage mothers, and
the sponsoring of child-care train-
ing through the Canadian Jobs
Strategy.

The reéport’s Conservative
authors said they chose a tax-
credit-based approach because it
would give parents, especially the
middle class, extra money to spend
on child-care.

The report’s proposals were crit-
icized by Liberals, New
Democrats, feminist, labor. and
day-care activists as inadequate.
Some opponents argued it would

Hospital as a clinical psychologist,
but soon talked his way into hospi-
tal administration.

“I used to complain about the
administration all the time, so they
said, ‘Why don’t you get into it?’”

Borthwick went back to school
and became a qualified hospital
administrator in 1964.

After serving as Riverview’s
assistant superintendent for three
years, he moved to Toronto where
he worked as the director of pro-
fessional services at Sunnybrook
Hospital and, for seven years, as
the executive director for the
renowned Clarke ‘Institute of
Psychiatry. i,

When the top executive position

at LGH became vacant in 1976, he”

jumped at the oppertunity to
return to the West Coast and to
head what he considered to be one

of the country’s best community -

hospitals. ,

Under Borthwick's administra-
tion, the hospital has gracefully
absorbed the recent revolution in
medical technology and the budget
cuts of financial restraint while pi-
oneering day-care medical pro-

grams and establishing B.C.’s first -

medical day-care centre. - ;
“But I don’t want to take credit

‘for that. I just happened to be the

guy who was around,”’ Borthwick
said. ‘‘My contribution is to pra-
vide a climate that makes it possi-

‘ble for these things to happen.

Administration is making things
happen.”’

Borthwick remains a tireless
cheerleader for hospitals and hos-
pital workers and regularly speaks
to both local service clubs and na-
tional associations on the state of
current health care.

Consistent with his belief in the
value of teaching modérn medical
administration techniques, Bor-
thwick has volunteered his time as
chairman of such prestigious
organizations as the Board of Ca-
nadian College of Health Service

NEWS photo Terry Peters

esident John Borthwick poses in front of the North Shore hospital after announcin
down at the end of September after 11 years as the hospital’s president. . ;

Hospital pr

/
TE
LIONS GA He will step

his retirement.

only perpetuate the use of
unlicensed, and often inadequate
child care.

And both the Liberal and NDP
governments: released their own
child-care reports.

The Liberal report concluded
there is no use putting money in
the hands of parents for child care
because there are no child-care
spaces available. The NDP report
calls for the immediate infusion of
cash toward providing new day-_
care spaces, as well as a phased-in
plan for universally affordable day
care. ;

,

Administrator earned respect

Executives, the Legislation Com-
mittee of B.C. Health Association.
and the Hospital. Administrators’
Council of Greater Vancouver.

’ Despite the miracles provided by
technology, Borthwick believes the

‘ real miracle of modern health care

lies in its workforce.
“There is something very special
about nurses and people who work
in hospitals,”’ he said. ‘‘Of course,
there is ajlot of rewarding work
done, but some of it is very sad. A
lot of people don’t get better, and
that’s very tough, very draining.”
Of. his., post-retirement plans,
Borthwick ‘said he might offer his
expertise to Third World countries
through such international
organizations as CUSO.__. :
Warne said the LGH Board
would begin immediately to search
for a candidate. to fill the position,
which carries an annual salary of
over $75,000.

Weather:

. Friday and Saturday,
mainly cloudy with
periods of rain. Highs -
near 17°C.

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