LACOMBE, Alta. – One of every six deaths on Manitoba farms is a child, according to statistics released by the province.
Nationwide, statistics on farm-related accidents and children are equally as grim. The National Coalition for Rural Child Care is calling for action before more children are hurt or killed.
Farm children frequently accompany their parents to the field, ride on tractors or play around barns because there’s no other place to leave them when there’s work to be done.
“There has to be more child care and support services available to those families who are choosing to make their farms more safe. If you have no place to put your children and you’re with them on the tractor, you’re not safe and neither are they,” said Margaret Jones, a mother and farmer from High Prairie.
Read Also
U.S. farm group supports supply management
U.S. grassroots farm advocacy group pushing new agriculture legislation that would move towards supply management like Canada has for dairy industry
Jones represents Alberta on the 12-member coalition, which has members from each province and the territories. The organization’s goal is to start rural support programs to build a national rural child-care program that ensures quality care of farm children.
“Child care is a necessary family support regardless of where they live,” said Jones at the annual Women of Unifarm meeting in Lacombe.
There’s much work to do since the coalition has found that child care appears to be an urban luxury. A national child-care conference held in Calgary at the end of May neglected to include rural needs.
“We were very disappointed that rural child care wasn’t even mentioned,” said Jones.
The rural coalition’s annual general meeting is later this month.
To demonstrate successful rural day care is possible, the coalition led by Jane Wilson uses the three-year-old Lakeview Children’s Centre at Langruth, Man. as an example. Wilson is its executive director.
At Lakeview, hours are flexible and care providers are qualified. It is a licensed centre about 160 kilometres from Winnipeg with funding from the federal and provincial governments. Other provinces would like to repeat this success and the coalition is encouraging imagination and flexibility to develop after-school care, seasonal care, child minders and on-site care, said Jones.
Alberta had a rural child care project with funding from Alberta Agriculture. Once the money ran out, few of the projects continued so overall the program had little impact, said Jones.
She does see areas of improvement.
Alberta women are talking with agriculture minister Walter Paszkowksi to see if some of the restrictions on summer farm employment programs could be lifted. This program stipulates outside farm work only, not child care. These programs subsidize the wages of summer farm workers.
The British Columbia minister of women’s equality has set aside some money for rural child care.
In Saskatchewan, the national coalition was at the farm safety jamboree at Regina’s Farm Progress Show to solicit support.
