Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater on the NDP’s daycare pledge to reduce fees for parents.
But something needs to be done to work out the kinks in the program that promises to reduce fees parents pay by between $60 and $350 a month, depending on the type of care.
The province should know that over the next few months until the program is up and running, there will be uncertainty and misunderstandings.
It’s not enough to say the two Katrinas — Children and Family Development Minister Katrina Conroy and Katrina Chen, the minister of state for child care — are on the case. Parents as well as daycare operators need updates — not press conferences at supportive daycare centres — but real information on the latest details, including participation rates, as well as assurances about next steps, payment and other factors.
This may mean holding the kind of teleconference that was frequent during forest fire season, so everyone, including parents, have the same information.
Many might say universal daycare is not worth the trouble and too hard to do for the existing mix of private and non-profit care.
But we argue that affordable, good quality care is good for families and the B.C. economy.
So let’s not quibble about the government’s longterm aim. Instead, let’s find a solution to remove obstacles for private operators to opt in.
Private daycare operators are understandably worried that opting in will give the government control over their books because they’ll need to justify cost increases such as staff wages and rent hikes.
While some kind of accountability is necessary to ensure that taxpayer money goes to parents, not operators, but what can be done to make sure contracts give operators assurances while also being equitable and transparent? Let’s work on that.
It’s critical that daycares opt in and give parents the promised fee break, otherwise this fee reduction initiative will fail. Parents will lose out while the operators will look like the bad guys.
Can these issues be worked out? Absolutely. What’s more, they must be resolved.
But the government needs to recognize that people’s livelihoods and family finances are at stake.
Anything less will only make the daycare situation worse.
