[van-announce] Joint Press Conference: 10:00 Friday July 3rd: Women's organizations and live-in caregiver advocacy groups to call on provincial government to address urgent childcare crisis

[Grassroots Women]

Grassroots Women - B.C.

SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers)

Philippine Women Centre of B.C.

 

Women's organizations and live-in caregiver advocacy groups to call on
provincial government to address urgent childcare crisis

For Immediate Release: July 1, 2009

Local women's organizations and live-in caregivers advocacy groups will be
holding a joint press conference to call on the newly-elected provincial
B.C. government, the appointed provincial cabinet, the shadow cabinet and
the opposition parties to take immediate action to address the urgent
childcare crisis in the province.  The groups will also reiterate their call
to scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program as the government's "de-facto"
national childcare program.  The press conference will be held on Friday,
July 3 at 10:00 a.m. at the Grassroots Women office at 1115B East Hastings
street (entrance on Glen Drive.)

 

"We are extremely disappointed that childcare was not seriously addressed by
any of the parties as an important issue in the recent election," says
Merryn Edwards, Vice-Chair of Grassroots Women - B.C.  "The continuing lack
of affordable and accessible childcare is a major cause of women and
children's poverty and is also a barrier to working women's equality and
their full participation in our society," she says. 

 

While Ontario recently announced plans to implement all-day kindergarten for
children ages 3-5, the Liberal provincial B.C. government announced this
will not be happening in B.C. any time soon due citing high costs and the
economic crisis. 

 

"Rather than more government cut-backs to badly-needed social programs such
as childcare, now more than ever is the time when the government should take
serious action to address the childcare crisis in this province and across
Canada," says Edwards. "Without accessible and affordable childcare working
women are forced back into their homes unable to fully participate in the
economic, social, political and cultural spheres of our society."

 

"Since 1992 Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Live-In Caregiver Program
(LCP) has been taking advantage of the economic situation in the
Philippines," says Jocelyn Vergabera, a member of SIKLAB, a Filipino migrant
workers organization. "The hiring of Filipino live-in caregivers benefits
only the needs of middle and upper-class Canadian families leaving working
class women and migrant women with little to no childcare options," she
says.

 

Vergabera came into Canada through the LCP.  "I left my own children in the
Philippines in the care of others for the chance to come to Canada," says
Vergabera. "We expect a better life in Canada but many of us find ourselves
working and living in deplorable working conditions and suffer the negative
long-term impacts of the LCP on our families," she says. 

 

"Not only is the LCP extremely exploitative, it also does not address the
childcare needs of the majority of Canadian women," says Edwards. "We are
joining together to call on government to address the urgent childcare
crisis without resorting to the exploitation of Third World women," she
says.

 

For more information, please contact Niki at 604-215-1103 or 604-682-4451 or
e-mail: pwc at kalayaancentre.net or: grassrootswomen at telus.net

 

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Grassroots Women

1115B E. Hastings (entrance on Glen)

Vancouver, BC V6A 1S3

web: www3.telus.net/grassrootswomen

email: grassrootswomen at telus.net

phone: 604-682-4451 (fax same #, please call first)