New licensed child care spaces will be created in existing and planned social housing developments under an agreement between the Ministry of Children and Family Development and BC Housing, Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid announced on July 19, 2007.  Click HERE for more info.

News from the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

Cross-Canada Federal Pre-Budget Public Hearings

The deadline for applications to appear before the federal finance committee is July 31st; the deadline for written submissions is August 15th.   Child care advocates from all across Canada are encouraged to apply to appear before the committee and to share a brief written submission to demonstrate public support for affordable, high quality, universal child care in Canada. For background material in preparing submissions have a look at the CCAAC website for Budget 2007 resources.  Recommendations can be found in our Advantage Canada submission: http://action.web.ca/home/ccaac/alerts.shtml?x=93812&AA_EX_Session=ba187d963f5f83259a43ca20229a8b86 

Please contact Elizabeth Kingston, Clerk of the Standing Committee on Finance, before July 31st at (613) 992- 9753 or e-mail: fina@parl.gc.ca.  Provide the group’s name and presenter with address, phone and e-mail contact information and preferred city of presentation.  Submissions should be no more than 5 pages in length and include a 1-page summary priorizing your proposals.  For more info go to: www.parl.gc.ca/FINA.  The current schedule of hearings is as follows:

Week of September 17: Ottawa
Monday, September 24: Iqaluit
Wednesday, September 26 and Thursday, September 27: Ottawa
October 1: Winnipeg; October 2: Regina; October 3: Calgary; October 4: Victoria
October 15: Charlottetown; October 16: Halifax; October 17: Rivière-du-Loup; October 18: Montreal
Monday, October 22: London, Ontario
Tuesday, October 23 and Thursday, October 25: Ottawa

Let’s tell this federal government that child care must be a priority in their next budget!