City's childcare efforts a drop in the bucket
Vancouver Courier
Allen Garr
17 Mar 04

There was a brief moment at the end of the NDP era in Victoria when we were on the threshold of universal childcare. Parents of modest means were offered the service for $7 a day. And, based on the notion that if you build it they will come, spaces were gobbled up faster than pie at a blackberry festival.

Then, of course, the government changed and so did Victoria's attitude towards childcare. You may recall deputy premier, education minister and new mom Christie Clark got free childcare space in the legislative precincts right next to her office. But for the rest of the folks in B.C., that daycare subsidy disappeared faster than you could say, "New Era."

Low-income parents were still getting some help, but the squeeze was put on them too when the government lowered the income cut-off for assistance. Nobody has figured out exactly how many of the 40,000 recipients of that help province-wide got dumped. Victoria's commitment to childcare dropped by $50 million, or 25 per cent.

One thing did happen, and we were reminded of it at council last week-the city threw some more money into the childcare pot to avert a disaster. It restored a bit of the subsidy for childcare and preschool that was removed by the Liberals in Victoria. But even so, the city only contributes a total of about $870,000 a year, a pittance compared with the cuts from the province.

Tuesday afternoon, council was discussing a new Child Care Protocol. It is relatively cashless. The city will cooperate with the school board and the park board to use public facilities as a way of increasing the number of licensed day care spaces in the city by five per cent in the next two years.

That's not a hell of a lot, although it's better than nothing. During the presentation from the city's child development coordinator, Carol Ann Young, we heard that 70 per cent of all children under 12 receive some kind of non-parental care during the day. That doesn't include school.

Licensed daycare and preschool space in the city covers only 15 per cent of the need. Young's report adds: "Ironically, the least amount of licensed childcare spaces exits in the areas with the greatest number of children. For example, the Renfrew/Collingwood, Grandview/Woodlands, and Kensington/Cedar Cottage areas are some of the most child populated areas and yet have the fewest licensed spaces per child."

Mayor Larry Campbell read out a letter from Patrick Mueller, treasurer of St. David's Preschool Society. The society has run an East Side preschool for 32 years and operates mostly on parent fees. About 30 per cent of its children come from low-income families. When the provincial cuts in subsidies came, 20 kids stood to lose their spaces-until the city stepped in. Mueller told the city that without that, the school would have closed.

As heartwarming as that may be, you have to realize the city's ability to pick up where Victoria has dropped the ball is extremely limited.

The city has had an interest in child care as least as far back as 1990. Two years ago, to kick off childcare month, Mayor Philip Owen declared: "Access to licensed quality, safe, affordable childcare is one of the greatest contributors to the quality of life for children and families in communities across the province."

Last week, Larry Campbell added that putting money into childcare and preschool programs is "the ultimate crime prevention project."

We take it as a matter of fact that if kids receive proper care during the first half dozen years of their lives, they're a lot less likely to end up in jail when they're teenagers.

The city has figured it out. It's Victoria that remains the villain in this piece.