‘I finally gave up'
Metrovalley Newspaper Group - Burnaby Newsleader
February 14, 2008

Freia Lees pauses to take a deep breath before explaining her sacrifice.

"I finally gave up and decided to stay home," said the registered nurse.

Lees, a New Westminster mom, first started looking for child care when she was pregnant with her unborn daughter. Almost 18 months later, with a one-year- old child, she'd given up searching.

"I thought I was going to be able to find the best quality day care. That's not the way it is."

Lees isn't alone. The lack of child care space in the city is at a near- crisis stage. Parents--mostly mothers--are having to either work part-time or delay their return to work altogether as a result.

Philippa Smith went through the same stressful search for child care as Lees.

"Probably for the last six months of my maternity leave my priority and focus was finding day care," said Smith, who now has a 14-month-old daughter.

"I didn't have any options open to me, I was just waiting for someone to tell me they had a spot open. If they had a space, I would have to take it."

She eventually found child care, but it required a creative solution.

Smith and a friend--who also went through her pregnancy without finding day care--teamed up and hired a nanny to take care of their daughters full time. The nanny works out of Smith's home.

"Now we're really happy with it. It gives us flexibility, the girls both have someone their age to play with, they get outside and everything is working out really well," said Smith. "But getting to that point was really stressful."

Many new parents tell you a similar story about trying to find child care in New Westminster.

"It's tragic there isn't more day care. There are so many intelligent women who want to work in a province where the unemployment rate is at a record low," said Smith. "There are people who can do good work in the workforce but can't because they can't find day care."….

Finding ways to create more child care spaces now falls on the desk of New West's new social planner John Stark.

"When you look at it with regards to infant care and after-school care, it's pretty desperate," said Stark. "Typically, you're talking about wait periods of years in those situations."

While the greatest need is for infant and after-school care, it's only somewhat better for toddler to five-year-old care. It also varies somewhat by neighbourhood.

As a result, there are more latch-key children in New West, said Stark.

While new parents rely on family and friends to take care of their infant, some use unregulated day care or just don't return to work.

But solving the child care crunch won't happen overnight, said Stark. And it's not just the city that has to offer solutions.

Funding is needed from senior levels of government to increase spaces and there also needs to be a greater availability of education for child care workers.

"On our own, the city is quite limited in resources. That's why there's not only a need for partnerships with other levels of government but also businesses and non-profits to create new spaces."

Another role for the city could be assisting existing and potential child care operators, said Stark….