RUSSELL, Man. – The recent Manitoba Women’s Institute convention had a message for prime minister Stephen Harper: honour the agreement made by the Liberals to fund child-care spaces for five years.
Manitoba and Quebec were the only provinces able to obtain funds from Ottawa last year under the initiative because they have the most developed child-care systems in Canada.
“A lot of child-care facilities were preparing to upgrade and now are in limbo,” said Lois Neabel, who presented the motion to the 92 women attending the MWI meeting April 28.
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The former MWI president said having a child-care facility nearby is a matter of safety for farmers as well as convenience. Some farming parents end up taking their children with them in the truck or tractor while they do chores. An untended child is more at risk of an injury than one in a day-care centre with qualified staff, she said.
“One women told us of taking her two toddlers in the truck with her and then, when doing auger work, she tells them to go stand beside a tree and stay there until she is done.
“I don’t think my grandson would stand still by a tree while the auger was running.”
However, in Harper’s first budget released May 2, the five-year Liberal agreement to build child-care infrastructure was replaced with $1,200 annual payments to families with children under the age of six.
The Harper plan had the approval of some MWI delegates, such as Janice Harrison, who said she wanted stay-at-home parents to receive payment for their work.
However, Neabel noted it is not an either-or situation and both the family and the centre should get the money.
Dorothy Minish agreed: “I think we ask the government to continue what was already agreed to,” she told the meeting.
“(And) I agree stay-at-home mothers should get some help.”
The convention approved the motion 56 to 14, with 13 abstentions.
A counted vote was required for another motion asking the provincial government to pay for insulin pumps.
Liz Chongva, who seconded the motion, said the pump is a computer the size of a deck of cards that delivers insulin automatically and is the diabetic treatment most like the natural body function. She said the Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in Canada covering the cost of the $6,500 pump.
Some MWI delegates spoke against asking the provincial medicare program to pay for such devices. Karen Kaplen said there would be less need for the pumps if people would watch their diets more carefully.
The motion carried.
A motion that carried almost unanimously asked the federal regulator to ban television and radio programs that have vulgar language or sexually suggestive scenes so that children do not see or hear them. Delegate Marsha Chanin told the group she opposed such censorship. She urged MWI to instead write letters of complaint or use the off switch for offensive programming.
Also carried were motions asking the federal and provincial governments to improve national roads for safer transportation, to allow 911 calls to be connected nationally rather than just within each province and to have the province offer bursaries, tax credits and other incentives to bring health-care professionals to rural areas.
