Parents to bear the brunt of 300-per-cent rent increase
Vancouver Island News Group / Courtenay Comox Valley Record
18 Aug 2006

EXCERPT

Wee Care Childcare Programs could close if parents can't afford new rates.

With just a few weeks until the start of the school season, some parents are going to find an increase in their childcare rates.

Carla Carriere, who runs Wee Care Childcare Programs on three School District 71 properties, says she is going to have to raise her rates in order to deal with a 300-per-cent increase in her rents.

Last spring, School District 71 announced the increase, saying it was in keeping with other rental rates in the province. For Carriere, the news was simply devastating.

"I just cried," she said. "I just kept saying, 'How much? That's insane. How much?' "

Carriere said the increase means her rental rates are going from $203.50 per month to $480 plus utilities, a cost that she can't absorb on her own.

"Unfortunately, to offset this horrendous rental increase, parent fees need to be raised $1.50 per day," she said, adding as an example the after-school care which used to be $12 a day will now be $13.50.

While Carriere said the extra charge might not seem like much to some, for others it is going to be a huge undertaking.

"I have already had parents tell me that they can't afford the increase," she said. "I am afraid that subsidy families, which I have a lot of, will become latchkey kids, or the extras that the children are enjoying, such as sports or ballet, will have to go." ...

She said her daycares give families peace of mind knowing their children can be dropped off at one place, play in a licensed safe learning environment and go to school with no extra travelling. Because the system works so well, Carriere opened yet another daycare centre in an unused room at Arden Elementary for the upcoming school year.

She says the space she uses is not needed by the schools and she gets nothing for her rent except the space.

"I receive no janitorial services at all," she said. "And I receive no upkeep of the room -- just mandatory safety -- I am responsible for everything."

At present Carriere has seven employees working for her at just $10 an hour. She adds her own pay is less than $20,000 a year....

With no help from government sources, as she is a for-profit business, Carriere said she doesn't know if the extra $1.50 a day will in the end offset the increased rates.

"I am going to see how it goes in a four-month trial," she said. "It will be touch and go as I have no idea how many families I will lose. If I can't pay my bills, I will have to close down."