It takes more than a village
Richmond News
09 May 2008
Opinion By: Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt

One of the most challenging issues facing today's families is the provision of child care.

The stay-at-home mom is a rarity. Most young families need both parents working to make ends meet. Single parent families are increasingly common and traditional family support networks are not always there.

As a working mother, and now a working grandmother, I know that balancing work and family is a challenging and daunting task.

Many families need to turn to outside alternatives for child care; unfortunately the alternatives are not keeping up to demand. Recently, Richmond made front page news when parents camped out at a local community centre to secure one of the few openings for child care. The competition for space in licensed professional child care programs is fierce and is a stressful issue for both parents and children.

Thirty years ago I tried to get child care for my daughter, Michelle, and was put on a wait list. Now, 30 years later, Michelle is facing the same situation, having to put her daughter on a wait list for the second year in a row. Clearly not much has been done in 30 years to improve the child care situation in our province.

The responsibility for providing child care in Canada is a convoluted mix of programs provided by various levels of government and parental responsibility. ..

Under Canada's constitution, the primary legislative responsibility for child care falls to the province. In the early 1990s, Richmond council recognized access to licensed child care was important in providing for our families and youth. We also recognized the programs provided by the federal and provincial governments did not meet the needs of our community.

The city established a child care task force in 1992 and the Child Care Development Board that provides advice on how the city can assist in child care needs. Since then, the city has taken a number of measures to improve child care: …

- The Child Care Development Statutory Reserve Fund was established in 1994 to hold private and city contributions for child care facilities. This is used to allocate funds for capital expenses for child care on city property or other operations meeting the city's child care objectives.

- Four new daycares providing 100 spaces were built by developers and then turned over to the city to run.

- Five new child care projects are in the works; two have already secured provincial funding. ...

- Over the years, we have had dedicated staff coordinating our child care efforts. Currently, the city has a part-time child care coordinator.

These measures have had an impact: the number of licensed child care spaces in the city centre, for example, has grown by about 100 since 2001. Our role as the city is not to be the primary provider of child care, but to work with the community, developers and senior levels of government assist the development of new and better child care services. We have limited funds and rely on using partnerships, land use controls, and our land assets to achieve our objectives.

For parents struggling to find child care this is still not enough. As a society, we need to do better. All levels of government must step up to the plate and find a solution. Other countries and even the province of Quebec have developed child care models that work. We deserve no less.