The Yukon Liberal Party wants to change the way the Yukon's day care system operates to make it more affordable to parents and better-paying for child care professionals.

Our child system is in dire need of a cash infusion,' Lesley Cabott, the Liberal candidate for Riverdale North in the Oct. 10 election, told a press conference this morning.

'We have heard over and over again from parents and day care operators that the system is running on empty. We are prepared to act.'

The Liberals are promising to invest $2.8 million more into child care if elected to form government.

The Childcare Direct Operating Grant would be raised by approximately $600,000, or 25 per cent, said Cabott.

The subsidy provided to low-income families would also be changed to raise the eligibility threshold by about 25 per cent.

Currently, families with an income of approximately $30,000 and under are able to receive the subsidy. The Liberals want to raise that amount to provide aid to more families.

'Our plan puts parents first, puts children first and child care operators and providers first,' said Cabott. 'We think this will make a substantial difference.'

The change should open up the subsidy program to approximately 250 more Yukon children. Currently, about 700 children are eligible.

The party also wants to increase the subsidy amount by $100 a month. It would mean each family would receive $5,019 annually per child in day care.

The combined amendments to the subsidy program would cost the territory about $2.1 million a year.

'I think that's something that's worth spending on our kids,' said Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell.

A territorial Liberal government would also not tax the $1,200 per year provided to parents from the federal universal child care program introduced by the Conservatives.

The money provided by the federal government would also not be included when calculating income to determine eligibility for the territorial subsidy.

The Liberals also plan to redefine kindergarten as school-aged children.

After full-day kindergarten was introduced, the definition of the children was not changed. That meant child care operators continued to have to charge full-time preschool rates or have their direct operating grants impacted.

'It caused a lot of grief for parents and day care operators,' said Mitchell, pointing to it as a flaw in Yukon Party government policy.

The final Liberal initiative related to child care is to establish an annual bonus for child care professionals as an encouragement to advance their levels of certification.

Based on their level of training, child care workers would receive $1,000, $500 or $200 in bonuses per year.

The new program is estimated to cost approximately $100,000 per year.

'We entrust our children to the school system and we pay teachers well for the important job that they do and yet we are having our same children looked after one year earlier ... and we're asking people to do that and they're paid $12 and $14 an hour,' said Mitchell.

Child care workers must be seen as educators and compensated as such if the Yukon wants professionals to see working in day care as a career and end the high turnover rates, he added.

'The operators have been telling us and telling their clientele that they have no choice but to raise rates in order to pay their employees the amount of money they feel they need to retain them and they feel their employees deserve. That's becoming onerous to the parents,' he said.

The entire Liberal child care program would cost 'little more than one-third of one per cent of the total budget,' said Mitchell. He was unable to say where the party is planning on reallocating the funding from.

'We spent $3 million last year on a railway study so when we're talking about that amount of funding, it's readily available over the course of an entire budget.'

The Star was unable to reach the Yukon Child Care Association for comment before publication this afternoon.

The Yukon Party raised investment in child care by 30 per cent during its mandate.

In 2002 and 2003, $230,000 was put toward child care's direct operating grant annually. The grant can be used by the operators as they wish to help boost staff wages, aid with higher operation costs or to develop new programming.

In the 2004/2005 budget, another $675,000 was placed in child care, with the amount rising by three per cent in 2005/2006. It was again raised by five per cent for this fiscal year.

The supported child care budget has also received additional funds during the Yukon Party mandate.

In 2004/2005, it was given $10,000. In 2005/2006, it hit $15,000, and this fiscal year, it will get $20,000.

The territorial government also invested $70,000 in a public education campaign on the value of child care and child care providers.