The official reason given for reducing support for Best Start has been economic. So here is the economic argument.
Currently Health and Social Services spends $28.8 million on remedial work in Child and Family Welfare, Mental Health and Addictions. The Attorney General spends $11.3 million on Corrections. The Department of Education spends a total of $137 million on schools. 60 T/A’s now work in the school system.
These costs are related to the following problem areas where Prince Edward Island has the unenviable record of being amongst the most disadvantaged in all of Canada and where the formal system has no work underway that I know of that can make a meaningful difference.
Family Violence - The Child Protection budget has risen from $4.0 million in 1998 to just under $8.0 million in 2002. These costs have risen by 100% in 4 years. I have no recent figures but we can guess that this rise in cost continues. Without an effective intervention, there is no reason for them not to continue to rise at an exponential rate.
At the heart of the Best Start approach is a focus on establishing strong parental bonding. Research in other jurisdictions shows a dramatic difference in family violence as a result of this type of intervention. There is no strategy other than Best Start that can deal with this.
Learning and Literacy – 42% of Islanders have trouble reading well enough to get high paid work. PEI spends on average $85,256 to graduate a child from high school. In spite of this investment, our schools are having growing difficulty with a group of children who find learning very difficult. The trouble begins on the very first day of school. The national percentage of those who find learning a challenge is between 20% and 30%. It is important to understand that this poor outcome is not the fault of the school system. This group of children enters the school system on their first day already severely prejudiced with profound learning and behavioral challenges. The substantial investment in over 60 T/A’s has not helped at all.
In spite of all the effort of dedicated teachers and social workers, most of this group will leave school without the attainment and skills to make a living in modern society. Poor social skills, an inability to listen and to comprehend, are the prerequisites of being able to learn. These skills are developed in the very early years of childhood.
Best Start on focuses on opening up these learning pathways and setting children up to be the best that they can be. Best Start is the best tool that we have to make a difference in our literacy challenge.
Juvenile Crime - In 1999, there were 8,912 days spent in corrections on PEI by young men. Young men with low self-esteem and with no hope for a better future tend to commit most of our crime.
Until recently, our response has been to invest more in the justice system.. Self-esteem is a product of effective parenting and of warm family environments. This linkage is the reason for the support of the National Crime Prevention Centre for Best Start and their decision to invest in strategic prevention.
Smoking and Addiction - PEI is ranks second, at a rate of 33.6%, in Canada, with the highest rate of smokers who are aged between 15-24. Smoking drives a significant later burden of poor health, chronic illness and early death. PEI has the highest death rate from lung cancer in the nation. Smoking is strongly linked to self-esteem and to place in the social order. So again the root for taking much effective action is in the early years where an intervention with parents and in the home has a chance of working.
Obesity and Diabetes - Atlantic Canada and PEI have the dubious distinction of being the most obese part of Canada. PEI with 59% of its population overweight is the fattest province in Canada.
How and what we eat at home as young children sets up exceptionally powerful lifetime habits. If supported, parents can develop the skills and the habit off eating well when their children are young and so set a different pattern and a different pathway.
My challenge to cabinet is to tell Islanders what you plan to do instead of Best Start that you have confidence in that will have any better effect on these trends and these costs.
