Yvonne Jones, MHA for the District of Cartwright L=Anse au Clair and Opposition Critic for Health and Community Services, says government is not addressing serious child care issues facing this province and this  failure is contributing to a deepening of the crisis in this sector.  

The Liberal MHA questioned the minister in the House of Assembly today on its inability to tackle significant child care issues, including the concerns of unregulated child care spaces and that of attracting and retaining child care providers.  The minister of health and community services repeatedly dodged responding to specific questioning by referring to the government=s Early Leaning and Child Care Plan which was released in May 2006.

 AThis plan is already seven months old and while it may serve as a good public relations exercise for the government, it certainly has not  provided the level of practical support that is now needed to address the issues facing the industry,@says Jones.  AAdministrators are increasingly frustrated by the lack of support they are receiving from government in having their concerns acknowledged and in being presented with real solutions to these persistent problems. Not only are there insufficient spaces, leaving 93 per cent of children under the age of 12 in the province without regulated spaces, many of the existing spaces are not filled simply because operators cannot recruit the staff for these positions.

 Jones informed the House of Assembly that several of the difficulties identified by private operators in recruiting early childcare educators include the reduced wage and the insufficient benefits of the job. AThe early enhancements initiative for workers currently offered by government is not bringing these professionals up to an industry standard. Yet, the minister would not commit to a subsidy bonus to enable a re-opening of these closed child care spaces.

 The minister continues to insist that government has created 500 child care spaces, but in fact the number of subsidized spaces has increased due to eligibility threshold having been  increased from $20,280 to $25,000 (net income). AEither the minister is trying to mislead or he is simply misinformed about what constitutes a subsidy versus a space.

 AThe minister has also not been able to provide a full account of the $21 million in federal child care dollars he was entrusted with by the former Liberal government before Harper cancelled this popular plan. I understand that this money was not invested to supplement early child care educators on the job, but rather went to top up the staff in the minster=s office to complete several studies and to enable them to subidize more spaces for which they committed.  This is the same government which made it clear that child care was not a priority in federal-provincial discussions. Now, it  seems clear that this important issue lacks priority at the departmental level as well.@