Parents demand $10 daycare with week of action

Parents across B.C. are rallying for a $10-a-day, daycare system.

In Vancouver this weekend, mothers and fathers andtheir children marched along Commercial Drive from 14th Street to Charles Avenue stopping at Grandview Park to argue that affordable daycare helps families and bolsters the economy by allowing more parents to work.

Sara Langloisattended the rally. She has a three-month-old daughter and says she is struggling with what to do when she hasto return to work as a teacher.

"What I'm going to have to do because there's no other option is I'm going to have to put my daughter under the care of someone who's probably not licensed or I'm going to have to resign my job, which I really don't want to do."

The rally in Vancouver is just one of several around the province organized by the Coalition of Childcare Advocates of B.C. for a week of advocacy.

"All raising the profile of the child care crisis being visible in communities," said Sharon Gregson with the coalition. "And putting pressure on those who want to be elected in October that they need to go to Ottawa prepared to invest in childcare."

BCEarly Childhood Tax Benefit

The provincial government has long argued that a $10-a-day daycare subsidywould be far too costly to implement.

However, inits 2015 budgetit is providing some relief to families throughthe BC Early Childhood Tax Benefit.

The new benefit progarmprovides up to $660-a-yearfor each child under theage of six to help offset thecost of child care.

Whencombined with federalbenefits for families withchildren, a couple earning$60,000 with two childrenunder the age of six couldreceive an annual benefitof about $7,500 according to the government's web site.