Langley march aims to make child care a federal election issue
The Stroller Brigade will be held Saturday at the Langley Events Centre
JOTI GREWAL Oct. 4, 2019
A stroller brigade will take to the streets of Langley this weekend with the goal of making child care a federal election issue.
The Stroller Brigade for Child Care is a peaceful local march happening in communities across British Columbia who want to address affordability, accessibility and quality of child care available.
The march in Langley will take place on Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre playground.
The idea of the march is to bring families together and talk about the significance of continued investment in early learning and child care, according to Alicia Rempel, facilitator for Langley Children Committee, an organizer of the event.
Rempel said the march will be a place for families to get information about child care in Langley, while learning about the related issues in the communities.
She said the province has made progress with addressing affordability of child care, but there is still room for improvement.
“The challenge is there’s just not enough spaces and there’s not enough early childhood educators in the field,” said Rempel. “So we’re getting child care centres in Langley who have capacity to take more kids, meaning space in their building or facility, but don’t have the staff.”
Rempel said government officials also need to address the low level of pay for early childhood educators which has a ripple effect.
“The pay is just not there,” she said. “They really need to work on something at the pay scale… we’re certainly not going to get quality people into the job and we’re not recruiting enough.”
Rempel said there is no federal party platform that adequately addresses child care, and she hopes to see the leaders make it a more prominent election issue.
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