Small businesses could face a shortage of workers because of looming cuts to child care funding
Campbell River Mirror
By Grant Warkentin
Feb. 02, 2007

Small businesses could face a shortage of workers because of looming cuts to child care funding.

“The reality is, if there’s no child care, there won’t be employees,” said Dr. Tanya Flood, co-owner of the Coastal Eyecare Centre in Willow Point. “That’s basically the crux of this issue.”

Flood said that when government funding for child care is reduced later this year, it could have negative impacts on local businesses. Day care providers will have to cope with reduced budgets, reducing the numbers of workers they can hire and reducing services. That’s going to make it tougher for parents to find daycare for their children while they work.

“We don’t have the providers and, therefore, we don’t have the spaces and, therefore, they can’t work,” Flood said, explaining why many moms might have to stay home to look after their children.

There are 26 employees at Flood’s two Coastal Eyecare Centres. She estimated that about two-thirds of her employees rely on some kind of child care to be able to work.

“If we want the economy to grow, we need to have services for working families,” she said. “It has such a significant economic impact.” Michelle Kenny recently had a baby boy. She wants to go back to work in March, but she’s getting worried that might not happen.

“My baby’s been on the waitlist for daycare since September,” she said. “If I want to go back to work, I have to get daycare. But there’s no daycare, no one who will take babies. They’re all full.”

Kenny said there are unlicenced daycare providers available, but she’s not willing to go anywhere that doesn’t guarantee a certain standard of care. “I’m not willing to take a chance with my baby,” she said. Kenny’s not alone.

“If I’m in this situation, I’m sure there’s lots of other people who are, too,” she said. “At the rate we’re going, people aren’t going to be able to afford to go back to work. It is a big mess. You need the people out in the workforce.” Gwen Bennett runs Cari’s Infant and Toddler Centre next to Carihi Secondary School.

After 15 years of running a licenced child care business, she’s seen a lot of conflicting government decisions.

“They give with one hand and take away with the other,” she said. But the net result has rarely been positive. She feels the latest development shows both federal and provincial governments consider child care a low priority.

“What’s really lacking is a plan for child care, both by the provincial and federal governments,” she said.

Instead, both levels of government seem to be pointing at each other, expecting one or the other to pick up the funding slack. And neither wants to blink.

Bennett said the end results are child care fees will go up, and families will either choose to put their kids in unlicenced care or to stay home with the children.

That’s going to lead to economic hardship for families, she said. “Many families can’t afford to have a parent at home doing all the child care,” she said.

Bennett said her business will lose $20,000 next year if the funding cuts go through. That’s $20,000 that previously went to staff wages. “We’re going to have to raise fees,” she said.

She’s concerned about what that will mean for her ability to attract and pay staff, who make around $12 per hour. She wishes she could pay them more – but she just can’t afford it.

Bennett estimated the funding cuts could mean an increase of $2 per day per child in school, and $4 per day per preschool-age child…