Minister outlines her daycare-dollar plans; Linda Reid has her eye on empty classrooms
The Vancouver Province
02 Oct 2007
By: John Bermingham

The B.C. government wants to turn empty classrooms, courthouses and heritage homes into 2,000 new childcare spaces by 2010.

Linda Reid, minister of state for child care, is going to spend $12.5 million of federal capital dollars to expand child care.

"We're hoping we can engage better utilization of public buildings," Reid told The Province yesterday.

"There's lots of empty classrooms across B.C.," she said.

Reid figures it would cost $50,000 to renovate a classroom for 25 kids.

And she also likes the idea of turning parts of unused courthouses into daycares, as Squamish has done.

Some municipalities own heritage homes that are lying empty which could also be converted, said Reid.

Penny Tees, the Kootenay-based president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, said school boards welcome child care on school grounds.

"It's a positive step for communities," said Tees.

She added that boards will not operate the child-care facilities.

Adrienne Montani of First Call, a child-care advocate group, said daycare spaces are closing across B.C., because their operating funding was slashed in July.

Higher fees are being passed on to parents to make up the funding shortfall.

And Montani said child-care workers are getting out of the profession and looking for more lucrative work.

"It's a good thing to put child care into schools," said Montani, a former Vancouver school trustee. "But the real question for opening up new spaces is operating funds. Right now, it's all parent fees."

Montani figures 2,000 spaces represents less than one per cent of the spaces needed for the 0-12 age group.

NDP child-care critic Claire Trevena said there's no money for wages to stop the exodus of workers out of child care.

"Capital funding is not going to deal with the child-care crisis in this province," said Trevena.