Campus: Competition for child care spots
The Peak - Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
May 27, 2007
By: Earl Tapia

For Meghan O'Donnell, a 4th-year student living in Louis Riel, sending her son to daycare means a trip down the mountain.

"Because my son isn't able to go to daycare here [on the mountain], I have to send him to daycare off the mountain," she said.

The reason for this is that there aren't enough spaces in the Child Care Society, which is responsible for running the child care centre that's present on the mountain.

There are currently 45 staff that work directly with the children, and 222 child care spaces available. However, the wait list is currently at 957, with a reported wait time of anywhere from six months to two years.

PhD student David Newman, a resident of Louis Riel and a parent as well, says that the situation is bad for people on the mountain with kids who don't have access to the daycare centre.

"For people who live on the mountain, such as ourselves, and there are other student parents as well, the only option is off the mountain. We don't have a car, there are other students who don't have a car, so it really means there isn't an easy option for us in terms of finding after-school care," he said.

He points out when this problem was made aware to him.

"For us the problem really came home to us when our son, who was to move on to Crackers, which is their after-school program, and of the 22 kids moving on they only had room for four or five kids," he said.

Newman points out that there are similar wait-list numbers across the Lower Mainland and the province, with many daycares reporting wait lists between 800 and 1,000 spots, which points to the much larger problem of a lack of government funding for child-care programs.

However, he says that there are things that can be done to help alleviate the situation for those on the mountain.

"One of the first things we're asking is that the priority for entry into the child-care programs on campus be changed so that first priority goes to students, staff, or faculty who are living and working on the mountain," said Newman.

Pat Frouws, director of the Child Care Society, states that priority currently belongs to anyone affiliated with SFU, with no preference for anyone living on the mountain.

"We have a priority system here that gives priority to anyone that is affiliated with SFU, so staff, faculty, and students have equal priority within the first priority, and it doesn't delineate between who lives here and who doesn't," said Frouws.

Frouws does recognise the shortage of space, but stated that there wasn't much the society could do in that regard.

"The shortage situation for us as a child-care society, for us to expand to meet the capacity needs that are obvious are almost impossible because we're not being given operational funding from the province. It's been cut back," she stated.

"For us to expand what we have already operating here, we have to find operational dollars more than what the parents can pay for, because they can't meet the demand for the operation," she added.

Pat Hibbits, Vice-President Finance and Administration, states that there will be some expansion on the mountain soon.

"There is going to be an expansion of child care on the mountain, because there will be two new centres at UniverCity. One is scheduled to open in the fall," she said.

However, she didn't say anything regarding the priority issue for residents on Burnaby Mountain.

"It's a tough question, though, should a student living up here get priority to a student living off campus? Because students living up here, maybe they already have subsidised housing here, and the person off campus doesn't, so why would one have priority over the other? It's a difficult issue," she stated.

Hibbits also said that the decision of who gets priority falls in the hands of the child care society.

Frouws states that part of the reason people are frustrated is because even being at the first priority bracket doesn't guarantee people a spot on the wait list anymore.

"Everybody wants to get into the first priority, and when they get there they still don't get a spot," said Frouws.

"It's very frustrating," she added.

Despite the seemingly high numbers, there are those who say that they're normal and expected.

Linda Reid, minister of state for Child Care for B.C., says that wait-list numbers such as the ones mentioned above are something that every parent should expect.

"Any parent worth their salt is probably on 10 or 15 wait lists," said Reid, who also mentioned that there are currently 1,500 extra child-care spaces in the province being built.

"Lots of families put themselves on wait lists before they conceive that child, and given that there's usually a year of maternity leave, usually families get the service they're looking for," said Reid.

SFU's operating agreement with the Child Care Society means that SFU provides the building to use for the society, as well as some staff and financial support, and the society gives priority to people affiliated with SFU.

It is currently up for review this coming fall, when things such as the new child care centre will open in UniverCity. This new shelter is meant to provide care for 12 children under three years of age, which Frouws says has the highest demand on their wait list. There are also plans to open another shelter for 50 more children by 2010, which will most likely be for 3-5 year olds.

Still, despite these positives, there are many more things to be looked at, aside from the space crunch, such as child-care costs. For instance, Newman says that both his and his wife's academic fees combined equal the cost of their son's daycare.

For now, student parents such as O'Donnell living on the mountain have to do their best with their situation.

"I just think we should have first priority because we are specifically in residence here to be closer to the university," she said.

"That's one of the reasons I chose to live on campus, because everything is right there and I didn't have to go so far away to get everything," she added.