March 1 to 8 was set aside as a week of action for poverty reduction. There were many rallies, information tables and social media awareness campaigns in the North Okanagan and throughout B.C.
B.C. is the only province in Canada with no poverty reduction plan. One in five children in B.C. live in poverty and 33 per cent provincially (27 per cent in the Vernon School District) enter kindergarten vulnerable.
We know that the impact of child poverty is lifelong, adding to long-term education, justice and health care costs. A key pillar of poverty reduction is child care.
When families have access to quality, affordable, accessible and inclusive child care, all of society benefits.
Quality child care is just as important to our society as education or health care.
Children’s brains develop at their highest rate in the first five years of life. Early experiences have critical impact on brain development.
Families of young children are doing the best they can, but in today’s economy, a parent at home is not usually an affordable option.
Our current system requires parents to pay for most of the cost of child care which can be more than the high mortgage costs or student loan costs that parents are already facing.
Families with children are great contributors to our economic development. When they work, buy houses and spend money on food, clothing and consumer goods for their children, our economy flourishes.
When children are well cared for, they have a better chance of graduating, forming strong families and being contributing, employable, healthy, law-abiding members of society.
The $10 a day plan has been developed over almost a decade, looking at the Quebec model in Canada and other successful models throughout the world.
Feedback has been analyzed critically and incorporated into many updates to the plan.
We are asking grandparents, parents, educators, businesses, aboriginal leaders, faith communities, government leaders and all concerned citizens to examine this further at www.ecebc., $10aDay.ca or cccabc.ca, endorse the plan (over two million B.C. citizens already have) and sign the petition for government to implement this plan.
We have strong studies indicating that not only will this investment help children, their families, and their communities, but it will stimulate the economy in very effective ways.
Quality child care can’t wait. Our economy can’t wait, and most of all our families and children can’t wait.
Lynne Reside
Vernon