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Joanne Casey and Daphne MacDougall are two Charlottetown mothers collecting signatures in order to bring publicly-funded kindergarten to P.E.I.; the only Canadian province without it. To date, the two have collected 700 signatures and are on their way to 1,000. That would put them in a position to meet with Education Minister Chester Gillan and Provincial Treasurer Pat Mella. "We feel that 1,000 would get the government's attention more than 100," MacDougall said. The signatures they've collected have come from petitions posted in the Holland College and various flea markets across the Island. They were disappointed with the 43 signatures they've collected so far from the students at Charlottetown Centre. "We're not happy with that when there're 600 students in the school," Casey said. One area they haven't had a lot of success with are small business owners. "They all think it's political and feel we're asking them to take sides," Casey said. MacDougall explained that's not the case. "This isn't a party issue it's a parental issue." Casey added the petition's timing couldn't have been more convenient with an election possibly around the corner. "We're going to present the petition before the budget and get it in before the election so if they want the votes then they're going to have to do what the voters want." MacDougall agreed and added 1,000 votes would be significant in an upcoming election. "A thousand votes for a province this size is hopefully enough to give them a push in the right direction," she said. Casey said day care is expensive and single parents have a difficult time finding money to pay a minimum of $110 a month for kindergarten. "A lot of single moms can't afford to put their kids in day care let alone kindergarten," she said. "So they're going straight from mom to Grade 1. There's no structured environment for them." She added it's easy to recognize children who haven't been to kindergarten. "They don't understand to sit in their seat for this period of time and they're not allowed to talk." Deputy Minister of Education Elaine Noonan disagreed. "All other provinces where kindergarten is part of the school system experience this, or have children who have learning difficulties in their early years," Noonan said. "It doesn't necessarily solve all the problems that children in Grade 1 and 2 experience, particularly in areas of reading." Casey said they want to know what the government is spending money on if they can't afford kindergarten. "We've got time to listen to them and hear why golf courses, for instance, are more important than this issue." According to Noonan, it's not as easy as beginning a program in September. "We can't say that we're just going to do it and it happens," she said. She added starting a kindergarten program on P.E.I. where 80 to 85 per cent of five year olds already attend some form of a kindergarten program is complex. "There are all kinds of things that we have to look at, for example: facilities, transportation, curriculum, teachers and existing programs." Provincial Coordinator for Community Services Kathleen Flanagan-Rochon said low income families can get a subsidy for their children to attend kindergarten. "It's strictly an income test," she said. "The fact that their child is five means they're eligible for it." She added with the existing programs space isn't an issue. "In terms of number of spaces we might have enough spaces for every five year old on the Island and then some." She said the distribution of those spaces can be a problem in communities like Eastern Kings. Noonan explained the Healthy Childhood Development Committee has been in place for a year with representatives from the health, education, justice and development fields. "What we've been doing is looking at the whole area from when a child is born up to the age of eight," she said. "We look at the whole area as a continuum of learning not just one year of age." Noonan added it's also a question of how children learn before the age of five. "It's amazing the kind of things that happen over those early years," she said. "We're not opposed to a program that's available to children five years of age, but it's not the only thing we're looking at." MacDougall and Casey said as mothers they're not going to give up and Chester Gillan isn't going to get rid of them.
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