Number of local day care spaces tumbling; Situation approaching crisis levels in East Kootenay
The Daily Townsman (Cranbrook)
November 2, 2007
By: Gerry Warner

As if skyrocketing real estate prices and a near zero vacancy rate wasn't enough, Cranbrookians are also facing a day care crisis with the number of licensed care spaces rapidly dropping in the city

According to the East Kootenay Child Care Report prepared by Gail Brown of Kids first in January 2007, the East Kootenay region lost 328 licensed child care spaces the last three years with only 29 new ones opening.

Cranbrook alone lost 155 spaces the past three years, a drop of 26 per cent, while Kimberley actually gained 21 spaces because of a private day care operating at the ski hill.

Brown's report says the East Kootenay has lost 506 licensed child care spaces since 2001. A drop in provincial operating grants and other grants in support of child care played a significant role in the decline.

The report says the 5/4 school schedule in Cranbrook, which sees students getting almost every second Friday off, also contributed to the problem by causing a shortage in Out of School child care spaces.

As a result, a situation has arisen where parents in Cranbrook are putting their names on waiting lists for child care spaces even before their children are born, says Rita Romeo, program coordinator at the East Kootenay child Care Resource and Referral.

"It's very serious. It's gotten to the point where there's honestly only about a dozen spaces left in the entire East Kootenay for kids three and over."

With the situation so tight, Romeo says people are waiting to see what the provincial government is going to do next to remedy the situation…

However, Reid's announcement also attracted criticism from the Coalition of Child Care Advocates for B.C. who accuse the province of trying to privatize child care in the province.

A Coalition release says making government child care funding available to "for-profit" private companies could make B.C. attractive to multi-national child care companies.

"The government is responsible for this crisis. They dismissed parents' concerns, ignored research and squandered resources. Now they are using the crisis as an excuse to lay out the welcome mat for foreign-based corporations that are trying to buy up community-based child care across the province," the release said.

Romeo says licensed child care operations in Cranbrook are a mix of for-profit facilities and non-profit centres ran by community boards. There are also non-licensed care providers that provide baby-sitting type care directly out of their homes.

Finding qualified staff is a major problem for the licensed care providers which only employ staff with at least their Early Childhood Education certificate or a specialist diploma. Pay averages around $10-an-hour, but can be as high as $15 or as low as $8-an-hour.

In her report, Brown says the Federal allowance of $100-a-month per child is not supporting most parents' child care needs. Some have even returned the allowance to the federal government after calculating the after-tax amount of their allowance, she says.

In her report, Brown says "child care providers have lost confidence because they're worried about a full collapse of the of the child care system in Cranbrook. Recent cuts to the Child Care Resource and Referral program and the Child Care Operating Grants are fueling these feelings."