Child care suffers
Cariboo Press -- Vernon Morning Star
11 Apr 2007
Letters -- Lucy Glennon

In response to the articles and letters concerning the closure of West Vernon school and the eviction of the Beairsto child care centre from Beairsto school, I would like to offer some clarification and comment. I am a long-time business owner in Vernon whose children attend Beairsto and whom has depended on the services of the North Okanagan Child Care Society for many years. I recently became a board member which has helped me gain a broader perspective.

It is important that the community understands that the child care centres in these two schools pay a reasonable but significant amount of money towards the use of school facilities. In 2006 the society paid a total of $27,800 for classroom space. I would also like to clarify that the lack of child care is not only a great concern for parents of young children, but should also be of primary concern to all citizens of Vernon.

The waiting list for day care in our society alone is almost 300 children and all other child care centres in the community are full as well. Many of the people on the waiting list whom are making the decision not to go to work because they can not find suitable and safe day care for their children are nurses, doctors, and other workers who provide essential services in our community. With our community, province and country facing an aging population and shortage of worker, we cannot afford to lose any members of our workforce.

The lack of child care spaces is of great concern for all of us. We can expect longer wait lists, poorer service and many changes to what we often take for granted if our community does not start to place more value on accessible, affordable, quality child care. It seems there was more out cry about one liquor store being closed than we have heard about two large child care facilities losing space.

Before these closures were announced the NOCCS had been working hard to try and create new spaces to address the critical shortage of child care. Now unfortunately our attention has to be placed on just replacing the spaces we are losing. At Beairsto and West Vernon we are losing a total of 108 spaces which serve almost 200 children when all the full-time and part-time children are taken into account.

If we don't find a suitable place for the NOCCS what are these parents going to do? Quit work? How do we keep essential services, attract new families with children and ensure that our children get the best early childhood care and education possible? Children aren't born at the age of five and parents don't just work from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

If you need a health care worker, firefighter, police officer, grocer, retailer, teacher, lawyer, child care worker (they need child care too), logger, truck driver or Tim Horton's coffee and doughnuts, you better hope they have child care.