Government Cuts Best Start

Last week, on the plane from London to Halifax, I got to talking with my seatmate, a woman studying social work in Norwich, England, and hoping to work in child protection. I proudly talked about the excellent Best Start program in my home province.

How sadly ironic, then, that our provincial government has decided not to honour its commitment to the program.

If you’re going to cut because of fiscal problems, would it not be wiser, from a purely practical perspective, to cut something other than a program that aims to:

…maximize the development of young children and their parents, in order to increase the children’s opportunities for success later in life.

Comments

Will Pate's picture
Will Pate on October 25, 2004 - 18:46 Permalink

I take it as final confirmation by the government that they don’t know how to manage the books in the new economy. We could have afforded Best Start if we cut corporate subsidies to party friends or managed our agriculturial system’s failure better, but with the two together there is little left over for children.

al o'neill's picture
al o'neill on October 25, 2004 - 19:27 Permalink

Yeah but kids don’t vote.

Cyn's picture
Cyn on October 25, 2004 - 21:43 Permalink

Good points Will.
How utterly backwards does a province have to be? How is it that our province can find money to develope a new garbage disposal system and at the same time not be able to maintain a committment to early childhood development…WTF!
I’m angry.