BRITISH COLUMBIA

Universal child care services:

an issue come o

By FRED WILSON
Two major conferences within

the last month, each demanding -

Political action, two major reports
issued in the previous weeks, and
the active involvement of hundreds
of parents, educators, and trade
Unionists, have underscored. an
issue that has come of age in B.C.:
the demand for universal child

_ Care,

' .At Douglas College last week-
end, 250 people attended a confer-

ence on child care sponsored by the

College and child care workers. In
Vancouver; March 20-22, more
than 100 trade. union’ delegates

~ turned out to the B.C. Federation

Of Labor’s: conference on child
care,

Each conference drew substan-

- tially different participants, but the

Message from both was similar.
Thereis a demand on the provincial
8Overnment to accept its responsi-
bility to provide universal child care
Services, and.a clamor for immed-
late action to press that demand.
And there was a declaration by
hundreds of people that they are
Prepared to become activenow ina
campaign on the issue, provided
Positive leadership is given.

The reports, released by the
Vancouver Council of Women in
March-and by the United Way in
February, detailed the crisis need
for child care services in the prov-
ince, and attacked the provincial
government for its insensitivity to
the problem, and for its bureau-
cratic maze of overlapping jurisdic-
tions which leaves no ministry di-
rectly responsible for child care.

As former Vancouver alderman

‘and co-author of the United Way

report, Darlene Marzari, told the
Federation conference, ‘‘What 1s
hew in the issue of child care is the
number of groups prepared to do
something about it.”

It is an issue on the agenda not
only in B.C. The Parti Quebecois
pledge to provide 20,000 child care
Spaces in Quebec if re-elected un-
doubtedly was a factor in this
week’s election victory. The Cana-
dian Labor Congress has asked
Women’s committees attached to
Provincial federations to make
child care their focus of activity for
1981. The major response to that
call has been in Ontario where the
Federation of Labor has.attracted
the attention of the province with
its task force on child care. The task
force is receiving briefs and sub-
Missions from parents and com-
Munity spokesmen in cities and
towns across Ontario, before head-
ing a lobby on the Davis govern-
ment to demand action.

There are two motive forces pro-.

_ pelling the child care issue to the

fore. First, the demand for child

_ Care services has not been constant,

but cumulative and rising. The
Number of mothers in the work
force increased by 35 percent be-
tween 1971 and 1976, and has con-
tinued to increase since then. The
number of single parent families in
B.C. soared by 55 percent between
1971 and 1976..

The second factor is the involve-
ment of the labor movement which
has begun to address child care as a
working class issue to extend the
base of the labor movement among
women, and, as in Ontario, has put
the political muscle of organized la-
bor behind a campaign for child
care. 2

In this province the labor move-

ment has yet to take the lead, al-
though almost everyone concerned
with the issue would welcome its
leadership. And there could hardly
beamore popular issue for labor to
champion.

The United .Way cites official
provincial figures which list 22,709
licensed child care spaces to serve a
child population aged 0-9 of 410,-
710 or aratio of one space per 18.08
children. However over 4,000 of
these spaces are for ‘‘child mind-
ing” or after school (latch key)
care, and over 7,000 are nursery
schools which only accommodate
children a few hours per day. In
fact there are only about 11,000 li-
censed day care spaces in B.C. for
pre-school children of working

parents.

The Vancouver Council of Wo-

men study surveyed families in
Vancouver about their child care
requirements and calculated an im-
mediate demand in the city alone
for 9,337 pre-school child care
spaces, three times the 3,392 spaces
currently available.

- The immediate question posed
by these figures is: Where are the
children of working parents being
cared for now? And the answer is a
despairing one: anywhere a baby-
sitter can be found, and in any ad
hoc arrangement that can be made.

Simon Fraser University profes-
sor Eleanor Ames, in a keynote ad-
dress to the Federation conference,
touched on that reality to make an
essential point. Child care is requir-
ed not primarily as a benefit to wo-
men or to working families, but for

- children.

Ames cited recent studies which
showed that most ‘‘child care giv-
ers’’ outside of the licensed system
are married women with children
of their own, whose knowledge
about child care has been gained
through personal experience ex-
clusively. About half of these wo-
men have only elementary level ed-
ucation or less; 65 percent are im-
migrant women, and 25 percent
have health problems. Many actu-
ally lose money. Average income
for unlicensed child care is between
$8 and $15 per day, or between $1
and $1.85 per hour.

_ The studies also demonstrate
that the‘great majority of these wo-
‘men truly appreciate and love
children, and the cases of abuse are
rare. But in too many cases there is

neither the ability or the incentive ~

to provide the kind of care that
children really need. The average
child in unlicensed child care
spends 25 percent of their time
parked in front of the television.
Quality child care is good for
children, but the licensed system,
chronically underfunded and high-

ly unstable, is not without its prob- ~

lems. A high turnover of day care

workers or a too high ratio of child-

ren to workers can also have a de-
bilitating impact on a child’s de-
velopment.

_Here is where the provincial gov-
ernment comes under attack. The
ministry of health is responsible for
establishing standards in licensed

child care situations. The ministry .

of education is responsible for
training and licensing workers. But
almost all of the funding for child
care is provided by the ministry of
human resources.

The bottom line is the lack of
funding from human resources,

_ which continues to approach child ©

care as a welfare service for poor

RAYCAM DAY CARE CENTRE IN VANCOUVER

f age in B.C.

v , =f

. .one of less than

250 facilities that has managed to survive funding shortages, back-

ward government policies.

women. ‘

The ministry of human re-
sources does not accept that it has 4
responsibility to provide child care
as a social service. And it doesn’t.
Of 248 child care facilities in Van-
couver (all types of licensed child
care), only seven are operated by
government, and these are for spe-
cial needs children. The rest are ini-
tiated and operated mainly by pri-

vate individuals (94), parent day

care societies (35), churches (26),
private welfare agencies (19) and a
number of other social service and

“community groups.

The ministry used to provide a
modest start up loan to a private
society attempting to launch a child
care centre, but there have been no
capital funds available for the last
two years.

The number of child care centres
has been declining at an alarming
pace. The reason is simple: inade-
quate funding from the province.
Rather than providing grants to
cover the operating costs of child
care facilities, human resources of-
fers a per-child subsidy, far below
the actual cost of the service. Rent,
wages, utilities or other expenses
are not considered in establishing
the level of funding.

Of course it is the parents who
must make up the gap by paying
stiff monthly fees, and additional
subsidies are available only to wel-

fare mothers, By the time many

single working parents have paid
child care costs their net income is
below what they could receive on
social assistance.

The clear demand from both re-
ports and both conferences is for

the provincial government to ac- .

cept its responsibility for child care
by giving one ministry sole jurisdic-
tion for the delivery of the service,
from funding to standards. And
every one agrees that the ministry
should not be human resources. In-
stead of a welfare oriented per child
subsidy to child care centres, they

want block funding at a level com-

mensurate with the actual costs of
operation.

Most people favor the education

ministry as the appropriate juris-
diction, although it is not unani-
mous. Some would like to see anew

‘ministry created especially suited to

the needs of pre-school children.
However the reality is that the
Socred government considers child
care a welfare service and is not
about to create a new ministry to

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

provide a universal service. And, it

must be said, the present system
was designed by the NDP govern-
ment and only reduced in scale by
the Socreds. NDP spokesperson
Rosemary Brown admitted to the
Federation conference that there is
no current NDP policy to consoli-
date the delivery of child care ser-
vices under a single ministry.

If the ministry of education can
be forced to accept responsibility
for child care and begins delivery of
service in one area, all parents all
over B.C. would rightfully demand
the same service in their area. It
would involve a tremendous allo-
cation of resources, and that is
something which the Socreds are
not presently prepared to consider,
and something the NDP_-caucus
doesn’t seem ready to accept either.

At Douglas College there was a
unanimous recommendation that a
province wide coalition of parents,
child care workers, unionists, wo-
men’s organizations and others be
formed to campaign for a universal
day care system in B.C. An almost
identical recommendation had
overwhelming support from the
delegates to the B.C. Federation of
Labor ‘conference, although that
recommendation has been referred
to the Federation executive council
for consideration.

One parent’s group at Douglas

College, TRACY, has offered to -

call a first meeting to form such a
coalition, although they admit that
they are not ina position to give on-

_ going leadership.

Child care will be a dominant is-
sue in B.C. in the months ahead.
There are many organizations and
individuals already committed to

making it so. But it-is clear that the ©

ingredient needed to make this
campaign a winning one is thelead-
ership of the labor movement.

‘Teachers
meet sets
campaign
on rights

Continued from page 1

tion, with the local association
concerned being required to
make a choice between the two
methods.”’

The following day, delegates
voted to conduct a referendum
by ballot to choose whether
strike action or arbitration was
the mechanism they wanted to
resolve collective bargaining dis-
putes over local contracts. i

The referendum is to be held
Nov. 15, the date currently set
by the Public Schools Act for
the automatic arbitration of all
unresolved contract disputes.

_ But whatever the outcome of
the referendum, new legislation
is necessary to give teachers ex-
panded bargaining rights. The
convention gavé major con-
sideration to a report prepared
by Vancouver lawyer David
Yorke which outlined the legis-
lative options which could be us-
ed to broaden the scope of
teacher collective bargaining.

Among the methods suggest-
ed by the report were: amending
the school act to allow teachers
to bargain for more than only
wages and bonuses, although
this would leave binding arbitra-
tion provisions intact; new leg-
islation specifically governing
teacher collective bargaining;
include teachers under the pro-
visions of the labor code with a
full scope of bargaining and the
right to strike.

As the Tribune went to press
this week, delegates were still de-
bating the proposed action plan
to win full bargaining rights.
However it was expected that
the main thrust of the plan — to
have teachers enter 1981 collect-
ive bargaining with a set of de-
mands on all issues, including
working conditions — would be
adopted. . :

Main points of the action
plan include:

@ The spring assembly of
the BCTF to work out demands
that assume full bargaining
rights; .

@ A bargaining goal for
1981 to include additional
clauses in collective agreements;

@ Local actions, including
job actions, be used to back up
demands for expanded bargain-

ing;

e@ A political action cam-
paign in support of teachers’
bargaining rights, including ac-
tion at the local level in school
board election campaigns.

Two other executive resolu-
tions complementing the central
demand. to “‘negotiate every-
thing that impinges on their
work”? dealt with pensions and
provincial education policy.

In elections Wednesday,
BCTF vice-president Larry
Kuehn was elected 1981 presi-
dent, replacing outgoing presi-
dent Alan Blakey. Steve Nor-
man was elected first vice-presi-
dent and Doug Smart was elect-
ed second vice-president.

The election of Kuehn was
seen as an affirmation of the

legate course of . eee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 17, 1981—Page 3