A Missed Phone Call

Yesterday I called the office of British Columbia's Minister of State for Daycare Linda Reid to get a comment on the upcoming day of protest against day care funding cuts. I needed it before my noon deadline, but she wasn't able to return my call till around 2 p.m. I'd already posted my story when she called so she left her comment on my voice mail. Here it is, verbatim.

"The rally that actually took place on February 6th seemed to make more sense to folks across the province in that they indicated that they were voicing their displeasure against the federal government. And that was their first anniversary in office. The Conservatives came into office a year ago February 6.

Certainly the provincial spending around child care has not been reduced and in fact will grow in the coming year. We certainly have protected the enhancement we made to the subsidy program. We lifted the income threshold for subsidy from $21,000. to $38,000. of annual income which captured, as you can appreciate, thousands more British Columbia families. We are not rolling that back. We are maintaining that despite the cancellation of the [Early Learning and Child Care] Agreement. And we are maintaining the funding for special needs youngsters under the Supported Child Development Program who require specialized support to attend child care. Those pieces are clearly priorities of this administration.

And certainly for those who would suggest that the provincial funding for child care has been reduced - that is completely untrue. We, in fact, will increase our spending in child care in the coming year. We have certainly re- framed, refocused some of that spending to maintain our priority programs, but certainly there is no overall reduction in child care spending in British Columbia."