THE EDITOR:

Re: 'Daycare crisis needs real solution,' Dec. 7 Times editorial.

It is important to make sure we are giving the public the correct information. There was a statement made, "Recent changes announced by B.C. Minister of State for Children Linda Reid - who is visiting Abbotsford today - eliminated the need for daycare providers to reserve space for infants."

This was never in place to begin with. A family daycare provider has never had to reserve a space for infants and toddlers….many family daycares do not offer spaces to infants. What holds so many child care centres from having infant/toddler programs is that they are not cost effective. The ratio in an infant/toddler program is four to one.

What that means is that the fees for these four infants will only pay a portion of the wages for the staff member to take care of them. Many child care centres just cannot afford to keep an infant/toddler program operating….

Yet in Vancouver, parents are paying up to $1,200 per month for an infant but here in Abbotsford it is only around $600 to $800.

The answer is that our town requires some larger child care centres that can provide one location for a larger number of children, but try to find a location, meet the licensing requirements and then deal with the City of Abbotsford. I have done just that. It wasn't pleasant. …We need the city as well to help provide locations ie: in community centres, municipal buildings or municipal land, or in schools.