Re: Request to federal and provincial governments to preserve the national child care program - Protect high quality accessible child care in London WHEREAS the City of London will receive $14.785 million in Best Start funding which will add 320 new licensed child care spaces by the end of 2007; and WHEREAS the City approved the Child Care Service Plan for 2005-2006 and the Best Start Transitional Implementation Plan and Infrastructure Plan; and WHEREAS the cancellation of the federal Early Learning and Child Care program by the new Conservative government results in the loss of the final $13.2 million payment resulting in the loss of 290 additionally planned cc spaces scheduled to be opened in 2008; and WHEREAS the lost funding will leave many children in the City of London without quality accessible child care; and WHEREAS the Conservative Government's proposed child care income support for families is a valid policy goal but is not a substitute for public investment in high quality early learning and child care programs; and WHEREAS less than $100.00 a month, after taxes, comes nowhere close to covering the cost of high quality child care, and tax credits for employers will not create sustainable, equitable child care programs; and WHEREAS without a national child care program, there will continue to be very limited choice in high quality early learning and child care programs for parents; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco, on behalf of Council and the residents of the City of London, work with the federal and provincial governments to preserve the national child care program and the Ontario federal-provincial child care agreement; (i) introducing standards that guarantee quality, universally accessible, developmental, inclusive programming like the Canada Health Act, the principles of child care needs to be enshrined in legislation; (ii) maintaining existing federal commitments Canada Social Transfer, Early Childhood Development Initiative and Multilateral Framework Agreement funding); (iii) dedicating a separate adequate designated funding stream for a new, long-term federal transfer to provinces and territories; and (iv) including provincial and territorial accountability, tied to five-year plans that include goals and objectives, timelines and targets, review and evaluation as they build new Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) systems; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the City of London work with families, child care programs, and child care advocacy groups to ensure that the federal government fulfils its five-year funding commitment to build a national early learning and child care system in London and Canada; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT this motion be circulated to the other municipalities in Ontario.