Council wants AUMA to advocate for early learning and care program
By Dale Woodard on April 9, 2021.
A program aiding families economically and supporting more women in joining and staying in the workforce is moving forward.On a resolution from Councillor Belinda Crowson on Tuesday, Lethbridge City Council voted unanimously to advocate to the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association for them to advocate to both the provincial and federal governments for a National Early Learning and Care Program.
The program will be a high-quality, inclusive, affordable and accessible, developed with significant long-term sustained funding and which will create a Canada-wide early-learning and child-care system and will be forwarded for consideration at the AUMA Annual Convention Nov. 17-19 in Edmonton
“When I forwarded the resolution to advocate for the national program, part of that resolution included writing an AUMA resolution and forwarding it on for their debate in the fall,” said Crowson. “I took the letter we drafted advocating the province and to the federal government and drafted it into the AUMA form. This has gone to our own advisory ad hoc committee who took a look at it to make sure it follows the proper protocol for AUMA and the advocacy advisory recommended it come back to council.”
The COVID pandemic has made is extra difficult for families already negatively impacted when early learning and care is not accessible, inclusive or affordable.
“When we did recovery in Lethbridge dealing with COVID and recovering out of COVID it was councilors (Rob) Miyashiro, (Mark) Campbell and myself that were part of the Community and Social Well Being Task Force,” said councillor Jeff Carlson. “One of the points that was raised over and over with our community was the need for these types of services, not just during a pandemic, but ongoing. I know many folks in social community services will be fully appreciative of this.”
In receiving the unanimous vote, Crowson shared the credit.
“While my name is on this, this has been created and drafted with the assistance of many people in the community because this is affecting a lot of families lives,” she said.
“This is keeping people out of the workforce, this is making people have a lot of difficulty getting back in. There are social reasons for doing this and there are economic reasons for doing this. This is something that will benefit people across our country. We know COVID-19 and the pandemic has exacerbated this, but the problems were underlying before and whatever we can do to support families across Lethbridge, and through this, hopefully families across Canada.” Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter 3
-2
