Child care challenges on menu
The Daily News - Prince Rupert
22 May 2007
By: Leanne Ritchie

Everyone is invited to celebrate May as Child Care Month and attend a community potluck dinner at 6 p.m. on Wed., May 23, at the Nisga'a Hall.

"Working families and children, communities and businesses in Prince Rupert need expanded quality child care services in order to thrive," said Teresa Marshall, the event's organizer.

"Numerous studies have proven that quality child care can give children a strong foundation for success in life. It is key to achieving a sustainable work/life balance for families. Providing affordable and accessible child care will also be key to attracting new employers and workers to support the growth of Prince Rupert as an international container port." ...

Speakers at the event on Wednesday will include Morna Ballantyne, coordinator of the national Code Blue for Child Care Campaign, parents and child care representatives.

The event is part of the "Child Care -- Let's Make It Happen!" tour. Organized by the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. and the B.C. Government Employees Union, the event is a partnership with national partner Code Blue for Child Care, which is visiting a half a dozen B.C. communities in the last two weeks in May.

"Working families and children, communities and businesses in Prince Rupert need expanded quality child care services in order to thrive,"
--Teresa Marshall, one of the organizers behind a community potluck dinner on Wednesday to highlight child care issues.

"Across B.C., from Duncan to Nelson, Burnaby to North Vancouver, communities are recognizing the economic and social benefits of quality child care, and supporting the development of affordable, accessible child care services as a municipal priority," said Marshall.

The goal of the Code Blue Campaign is to build a universal, inclusive, comprehensive, high quality, community-based child care system that is accessible and provides early learning and development opportunities for all children.

They want to see restored multi-year federal funding so the provinces and territories can begin building child care systems, federal child care legislation that lays out the principles of a pan-Canadian child care system, effective income supports for families, in addition to quality child care and dedicated capital transfers for community-based child care services.

Given the anticipated growth in Prince Rupert, a critical shortage of child care spaces has been identified in the area.

Judy Riddell of the Berry Patch Child Care Resource and Referral, has spoken about the numbers both at city hall and the school board.

Using a very low estimate that 40 per cent of children have working parents who need child care, in the infant toddler category, there are fewer than half the spaces available to meet the community's needs.

Currently, there are only 20 spaces available and an additional 32 spaces are needed.

In the one- to two-year-old category, Prince Rupert has 24 spaces and needs 77 more. For ages three to five, there are 83 spaces and 117 more are needed, for six- to 10-year-olds, there are 50 spaces and 233 more are needed. There is also a serious lack of pre-school facilities. There are 185 spaces and 404 more are needed.