Childcare debate should include LCP – women’s group

Childcare debate should include LCP – women’s group

VANCOUVER—While provincial governments meet here Friday (Feb. 11) with federal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden to discuss the new $5 billion five-year federally funded childcare initiative, a national alliance of Philippine women says the issue of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is sadly missing from the debate.

“The LCP is being deliberately excluded from discussions on a national childcare program,” says Cecilia Diocson, national chairperson of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC). “When in fact the LCP has been the Canadian government’s alternative to a national childcare program for the past twenty years,” she said.

Since the Foreign Domestic Movement in 1981 and the LCP in 1992 institutionalized domestic work, thousands of Third World women — 93 percent of whom are currently Filipino — have come to Canada to work as private nannies in the homes of Canadian families. Many are isolated in the homes of their employers under abusive and exploitative conditions. NAPWC says their contribution in terms of social and economic benefit has not been recognized.

“The government has actually saved billions of dollars in childcare costs through the LCP,” explains Diocson. “While there are estimates that it costs $15,000 a year to provide childcare for one child, employers of domestic workers are getting a package deal. Many domestic workers earn far less than $15,000 a year taking care of three children or more and doing other household work,” she explains. “This exposes how the LCP really exploits these women as a form of cheap labour,” says Diocson. “The LCP is a form of modern-day slavery in Canada,” she adds.

Organizations under NAPWC have been calling for the scrapping of the LCP and other temporary worker programs. They advocate that Canada should instead remove the LCP’s mandatory live-in requirement and allow workers to enter as permanent residents to prevent abuse and exploitation.

NAPWC wil be holding a community forum about possible changes to the LCP on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005 from 1-4 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall, 2881 Main St. – 30 – For more information, please call: Cecilia Diocson, Philippine Women Centre at: 604-215-1103 or e-mail: pwc@telus.net