PRIORITIES

The Sun and the province - that is The Vancouver Sun newspaper and the Province of British Columbia - have like priorities.

Today, The Sun ran a story at the bottom of Page B2 headed, "Cuts will Force Victoria Child Care Program to Close." The gist, quoting directly form the paper, is this: "Less than 3 weeks ago, the Victoria Child Care Resource and Referral Program celebrated the grand opening of its new downtown storefront facility. By September, the program will be closed. Cuts - from the current $14 Million a year to $9 Million starting April 1 and to $3 million by September 1 - mean 46 such programs across B.C. will be shutting down."

While that important story was relatively obscured by its location and short word count, the Front Page trumpeted, with a foto and red headlines, the Olympic Countdown.

On page B2, above the quiet, little piece about $11 Million being cut from Child Care funding - lunch money by Provincial Budget standards - was a double page spread about all the wondrous and sundry Olympic venues and their progress and preparations for the Big Event.

Some examples:

Athletes' Village, Original cost, $167 Million, Update, $315 Million, or double

Vancouver Training Venues, Orig, $5M, update, $27 M, or X 5

Richmond Speedskating Oval, Orig. $60 M, update $200 M +, or X 3.

So, let's make this simple, kids.

Hundreds of millions of taxpayers' hard earned dollars are assigned and re-assigned and re-assessed and increased with nary a blink of the politicians' eye or public's outcry for 2 weeks of sport.

Child Care Funding - pennies compared to the Big Party - is slashed and goes unnoticed.

We are poor little sheep who have lost our way...