Sharon Gregson calls the Early Years Strategy B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced Wednesday morning piecemeal and laughable.
The longtime advocate for publicly funded childcare, former Vision Vancouver and COPE school board trustee, who gained notoriety in 2006 after she posed with a handgun on the cover of the Canadian Firearms Journal, sees broader support for The Plan for $10 a Day Child Care, which she promotes as a spokesperson for the Coalition of Childcare Advocates of B.C.
And for her to do a $55-a-month tax credit that starts two years from now is just so pathetic, said Gregson, who also serves as director of child and family development services for Collingwood Neighbourhood House.
Gregson noted licensed childcare for toddlers and infants in Vancouver costs an average of $60 a day, according to a 2012 fee survey completed by Westcoast Family Information and Referral, so $55 a month wouldnt cover one day of such care. Any new spaces that are being promised are still going to be completely unaffordable for families, she said.
Gregson said she makes presentations to a minimum of two groups a week about the plan the coalition launched in April 2011 and travels to speak outside of the Lower Mainland at least twice a month. Shes travelling to Haida Gwaii next week, West Vancouver the week after and Revelstoke in early April. I came to this issue in 1987 as a single parent with two baby boys, she said.
Now a mother of four, Gregson says shes met parents who remove their children from licensed care because they cant afford it, jeopardizing their jobs. I see parents who phone me and are desperate, in tears, that their maternity leave is ending and we dont have a childcare space to offer them and they dont know what theyre going to do, she said.
Clark announced the governments eight-year commitment to early childhood development would include a $76-million increase in government spending on early year services in the first three years of the strategy. The government expects to spend $32 million to create up to 2,000 new licensed child-care spaces with 13,000 additional spaces over eight years. The government plans to establish a Provincial Office for Early Years and would spend $37 million on early years services, including childcare, and another $7 million on the coordination of programs and services.
Starting in 2015, a new B.C. Early Childhood Tax Benefit will provide $146 million to approximately 180,000 families with children under the age of six. Eligible families with net incomes under $100,000 would receive the maximum credit of $55 a month per child. Families with net earnings between $100,000 and $150,000 would be eligible for partial payments. The new benefit would be in addition to the B.C. Child Care Subsidy for low-income families and federal benefits.
Gregson noted that along with municipalities, community service agencies and school districts across the province, the Vancouver School Board supports the Plan for $10 a Day Childcare.
This plan sees the Ministry of Education fund elected school boards to provide early care and learning programs and the elimination of what Gregson called a bureaucratic subsidy system.
The plan sees families pay $10 a day for a full-time program and $7 a day for part-time. It would be free for families who have an annual income of less than $40,000.
Clarks press secretary told the Courier Thursday morning the premier has said the province cant afford the Plan For $10 a Day Childcare.
Gregson said the coalition estimates it would cost $88 million to lower fees for some infant and toddler childcare spaces in the province and to start to build a more comprehensive childcare system, less than the $146 million for the tax benefit.
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