A local mom wants to make child care visible in Squamish during the federal elections and she is inviting the community to help her do so.
Serra Boten is organising a “stroller brigade” this Saturday to draw attention to the need for better and improved childcare in town.
Boten is working with the $10 a day childcare campaign, which is spearheaded by Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC.
The group believes the $10 plan would make child care affordable and accessible for a majority of residents in the province.
The stroller brigade will meet in the Save on Foods parking lot at 10 am and then walk over to Stan Clarke Park where there will be a small gathering and some speakers.
Boten said the province managed child care funding, but a portion of that funding comes from the federal government. By rallying around this issue, she says Squamish can ensure that the winning candidate supports and commits to increase the $50 million that BC receives.
“Families and Early Childhood Educators want the same thing and together we need to highlight the importance of child care and let our local MP candidates know that we need continued federal investment in child care,” she said.
The NDP leader Jagmeet Singh recently announced his party would spend $10 billion to create 500,000 new child-care spaces in the country and make them either free or $10 per day by 2030.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has said it would add 250,000 before and after school spaces and expand the Child Canada benefit. Scheer promises to eliminate the federal income tax on parental leave benefits through a non-refundable tax credit, while the Green Party plans to increase funding to child care by $1 billion.
