The Fernwood Community Centre's infant and toddler centre is in danger of closing its doors due to a lack of certified staff.

Fernwood Neighborhood Resource Group executive director Roberta Martell says she would gladly hire the workers, but hasn't been able to find people with certification required under the provincial Community Care and Facilities Licensing Act.

The centre received notice yesterday from Vancouver Island Health Authority chief medical officer Dr. Richard Stanwick that its request for five staff exemptions -- that would have allowed staff without such certification to continue working -- has been denied.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Martell said.

It's part of a wider child-care crunch that has put 11,000 B.C. families on waiting lists, Martell said.

The Fernwood infant and toddler centre looks after 20 children up to age three but has a waiting list of 375 families.

Such centres are required to have staff holding a prescribed ratio of Infant Toddler Education or Early Childhood Education certification, depending on the number and ages of children enrolled.

"There's this Act which prescribes how you have to run a centre," Martell said. "And we would willingly comply with it if we could find staff. We always have."

Because of natural turnover of staff and nobody willing to take jobs despite wages ranging from $14 to $18 an hour with benefits, "all of a sudden we are no longer in compliance with the Act."

Two of her current staff aren't child-care certified but hold teaching certificates. "They could teach a class of 30 kids but they can't, by B.C. government standards, look after four children," Martell said.

The letter from Stanwick said "that your request for exemption will result in an increased risk to the health and safety of persons in care and does not meet the prescribed requirements. . . ." Martel said she has been advised by a lawyer that the centre could face fines of up to $10,000 a day if it stays open.

VIHA spokeswoman Suzanne Germain said the health authority has been working with the Fernwood centre "trying to bring them into compliance." The centre had asked for five staff exemptions but was only granted one by VIHA, she said.

Martell doesn't blame the VIHA enforcement staff. She said the B.C. government is at fault for not funding adequate spaces in community colleges to train ECE and INT workers and for not funding child care in general on a consistent basis.

Rob Fleming, NDP MLA for Victoria-Hillside, said the Liberal government "should have seen this coming for a long time."

"The wages and the conditions and benefits of employment in the child-care sector are completely out of whack in this labour market with the cost that a student has to endure . . . to get the certification," Fleming said.

"One problem is recruiting people to enrol in early childhood education and infant and toddler education programs and graduate from them, and the other is to keep the staff that are working now in the sector in this economy."

Martel said the government needs to create both short- and long-term strategies. In the short term, it should allow centres in danger of closing to hire "qualified but not certified people."

B.C. Minister of State for Childcare Linda Reid said she will check into the Fernwood centre's situation. "In that instance, I will certainly follow up with the Ministry of Health in terms of licensing . . . But we are building more space and increasing the number of graduates in child care today."

Reid acknowledged there are challenges in finding enough qualified child-care employees. But she added government "has some irons in the fire" including a $4.5-million program to pay bursaries to students taking those programs.

"We do want to reassure parents that there are some good actions underway to alleviate this current crisis. But the crisis is across the economy -- it's not just child-care providers today that are being highly placed in demand."

Reid denied that government has dropped the ball when it comes to training child-care workers. She said there are 35 institutions across the province that provide such training. "There are certainly sufficient numbers of spaces for those who would wish to take the program."