Nothing new for the kids, say BC Liberals

Laurie Throness
Photo: Throness website

AS BC NDP MLAs try to take credit for child care spaces reportedly created by the previous government, Chilliwack-Kent MLA Laurie Throness says the BC NDP have simply not kept their promises.
“This is the first announcement by this minister on spending for child care, and there’s nothing new in it,” said Throness. “This is BC Liberal money that was previously announced in our budget of February 2017 and the intake began in March – before the election even began. The NDP are trying to fool people into believing they are taking action on child care when they are clearly not.”
Throness noted that the announcement is the result of the fourth intake of the Child Care Major Capital program that the BC Liberals opened in March. According to the budget document, “Budget 2017 provides an additional $20 million for this program to help build up to 2,000 more licensed child care spaces and increases total provincial Early Years spending to approximately $330 million.”
This was repeated almost word for word in the NDP September update, which said: “Budget 2017 Update provides $20 million in 2017/18 for new child care investments. This funding will increase our spending on early childhood development and child care to $330 million this year and will support over 4,000 new child care spaces.”
“In September the NDP claimed the BC Liberal budget as ‘new child care investments’ when they weren’t new,” said Throness. “They also promised $175 million more for child care in their platform in this fiscal year, but there isn’t one new penny for the kids from the NDP. The reality is the NDP made big promises of more funding, $10 a day child care and none of it is happening.”
Throness said Maple Ridge MLAs Bob D’Eith and Lisa Beare in a release are trying to convince residents the new spaces are a result of the action of the NDP government. “They should be honest with voters and admit these projects have everything to do with the BC Liberal government and nothing to do with this one,” he said.

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