Survey says shortage real
By Matt Kieltyka, 24 HOURS
Nov 23, 2006

Desperate parents and child-care providers have been saying it for years, and now a BCGEU survey has shed new light on B.C.'s growing child-care crisis.

According to the survey of 50 child-care centres across the province, there is an acute shortage of spaces for children and waiting lists average over a year.

The results are nothing new to Ivy Ding, a Vancouver mother who has been trying to find a daycare for her 10-year-old son for three years. "It's really hard, I can't find space," she said. "This is a big issue, there are many parents like me that have to sacrifice."

Ding's family immigrated from China in 2003 and she has been attending school in the evenings while working during the day.

Currently, she has to pay a babysitter to watch her son, Jet, but would feel more comfortable with him attending a daycare.

Shaughnessy Point Grey Out of School Care administrator Diana Bennett knows where parents are coming from. Her program has a waiting list of 38, or up to a two-year wait.

She's worried that if the feds go through with plans to cut funding, the end result will be less spaces and higher fees. Both Ding and Bennett think the solution is a national child-care system.

"More spaces seems like a no-brainer," said Bennett. "Everything else they're doing is a waste of time."