Berry Patch closes its doors
Peace River Block Daily News
05 Feb 2007
By: Ken Gousseau

Candied apples and other treats were handed out to the children and staff at the Berry Patch childcare facility on its final day of operations in Dawson Creek.

The mood around the daycare was still sombre on Friday, though.

The doors officially closed at 6:30 p.m., after parents had picked up their children, who were among the 42 enrolled at the Berry Patch when its closure was announced about two weeks ago.

The facility could no longer keep its provincial childcare license, after three staff, some of them with the required Early Childcare Education certificate, recently moved on in their careers. The remaining staff members have been laid off.

"It's a sad day because we've been in child care for six years," said Jane Harper, executive director of South Peace Community Resources. "There is no other childcare centre for them to go to. A couple of them got into other places, but most places have a long waiting list." ...

Some parents are looking at in-home care and some are looking at babysitting as opposed to early child development, she said.

Some of the places that the children will go are not a quality childcare setting, Harper added, which worries her because the first five years of a child's life are pivotal in terms of their development.

"I'm very concerned about the state of childcare in the whole country. I believe that if we have commitment to children's education from the age of five on, then we need to have a commitment to children's education prior to that," Harper said.

"We spend a lot of money on education for six year olds or five year olds and up, and we spend very little on education for children before the age of five. I don't understand what makes that different."

Harper said the skills of childcare workers have never been reflected in the wages, so not many people are getting into the field. Fulltime hours as opposed to part time are needed in order to make the childcare business a viable option for prospective employees.

Sherri Stewart, an ECE at the Berry Patch, echoed the sentiment that her profession is not taken seriously enough, as reflected by the hours and wages.

"You're generalized as a babysitter and we're not. We're educators and we should be taken as serious as teachers," Stewart said. "I have gone to school for two years to become an ECE, to make the same as somebody who works at A&W. That makes me mad."

Stewart said she has been offered jobs already because of her ECE certification. But she's thinking of getting out of the field and becoming a teacher's assistant because they make better wages, she said.

Perhaps most upsetting for Stewart was the fact that children no more than four years old understood what was happening at the Berry Patch that day. "It's been heartbreaking," Stewart said. "One little girl hugged me the other day and said, 'you know, I'm going to miss you' and "it's too bad the daycare had to close.' They know and we've had a few cry. It's been very hard on them."

Harper said SPCRS is still working toward finding childcare solutions for the community....

"The long-term solution is that the federal government and the provincial government need to recognize the importance of early child development and put some money behind that."