by Patricia Morris

Do you support the federal government's initiating the development of a nation-wide child care system?

Think about it. Do you have reservations, as many callers did on a recent CBC Cross Country Check-up Program, about the role of the government in assuming responsibility for the improvement of child care services? If you do, then a careful look at the availability of child care anywhere in Canada should convince you that there are many gaps in the delivery of affordable and accessible quality child care.

Women wishing to return to education and training while raising children continue to encounter problems with inadequate provision for child care. Facilities are frequently a long distance from the training site; there is little provision for school age children; and hours of care do not often match the training program requirements.

The March 1986 Report of the TASK FORCE ON CHILD CARE recommends that universal child care be publicly supported. The Task Force found that most Canadian children needing care are being cared for in informal arrangements of varying degrees of quality. By definition, this care is unlicensed and not subject to any regulation which would ensure the maintenance of quality standards.

This report provides descriptive detail of women's experiences coping with the current situation and it provides a developmental plan of solutions. Unfortunately, after reading the report, supporters are left without the practical critical analysis to help formulate and promote programs and policies which will benefit parents and children through the assurance of good quality, affordable and flexible child care.

Yet another Parliamentary Special Committee on Child Care is now travelling across the country to listen to the concerns of Canadians on the delivery of child care. This committee is particularly interested in determining the public's willingness to pay for child care, especially the universal child care system recommended in the Report of the Task Force. If you endorse the provision of quality, flexible and affordable Child Care, please make your support known to the Parliamentary Special Committee on child care before the end of June, 1986. You can do so by writing them c/o House of Commons, Ottawa.

Patricia Morris is a mother and a member of the Halifax Committee of CCLOW. She recently co-presented a brief on the issue of child care as it pertains to women learners on Child Care. She works in the community Development and Outreach Unit of Henson College, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.