Time for a national, public, accessible, quality, not for profit childcare system

Statement by the labour coalition Rethink Childcare.ca

Young families are squeezed on all sides. Today’s young mothers and fathers need to work harder and longer than did their parents, while erosion of Canada’s social safety net has left them struggling to survive.

Young families, including newcomers to Canada and Aboriginal families (who experience Canada’s most extreme inequality) need good family policy, but especially childcare. Child care enables parents to get the education/training they need to access good jobs and should allow mothers and fathers to work without enduring years-long child care wait lists or breaking the family budget.

Child care makes it more possible for low income or sole support parents (who are mostly women) to take advantage of opportunities for advancement. At the same time, all parents can better balance work and family if they can be confident that their children are safe, thriving and happy.

BC mothers rally for child-care

Child-care continues to be inaccessible
for many parents and the workers are
some of the lowest paid educators.

Reprinted from Burnaby Now
By Christina Myers

This article is the seventh in a series of eight feature stories RY magazine is presenting before International Women's Day on March 8th. Here we present a short personal story of the ongoing struggle for child care.

A group of parents at Taylor Park Elementary School in Burnaby have banded together in the hopes of creating a new out-of-school care program so that future parents won't be facing the same challenges they're now dealing with.

The group pulled together more than 175 signatures on a petition asking for a daycare facility at the school, which they're hoping to present to the city in their effort to get support and attention for the plan.

"It's a big problem," said parent Yan Xing.

Xing has a son in kindergarten and said she was on a waiting list for an out-ofschool care program at a nearby school but wasn't able to secure a spot in time.

The Harper majority vs. women's equality

Protesting violence against aboriginal women

This article is the third in a series of feature stories RY magazine is presenting before International Women's Day on March 8th.

By Helen Kennedy

As we celebrate International Women's Day this year, let's take a look at the Stephen Harper's continuing agenda to roll back equality rights. How much more damage have the Tories inflicted in the first year of their new majority?

The anti‑woman policies of the Harper Tories have been well documented since they came to office as a minority government in 2006. The first move was to back‑pedal on the national childcare program and offer a stingy $100 a month tax credit. Dismantling support for advocacy around legislative and constitutional change was next, with the cancellation of the Court Challenges Program, the closure of most Status of Women offices across the country and cancellation of research and advocacy funding for women's organizations.

Despite statistics showing crime rates are flat or declining, the Harper Conservatives declared law and order a top priority. Legislation supported by both the Liberals and the NDP introduced mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes. Bill C‑10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, is currently in Senate hearings. If passed, C‑10 will greatly reduce and/or eliminate rehabilitation programs and recast the criminal justice system towards punishment and vengeance.