Daycare closure will be felt by all
Pique Newsmagazine
Oct 15, 2008
By: Paula Palmer, Whistler

Families are now being faced with a new dilemma in Whistler. Well at least the families in the Spring Creek Daycare Centre. Whistler Children's Centre (WCC) met with all the families that have children in the Daisies and Blueberries Programs on Oct. 9 and 10 to inform them that unless a miracle happens, the WCC will be closing the doors to the Infant and Toddler programs on Nov. 28. These programs are vital and enable parents to return to the work force.

We have 45 days to come up with alternative daycare solutions, as there is no room, or very few spots, that could accommodate our children and their care at the Nesters Centre.

WCC and the board members were unable to reassure us how long this closure might be. We were informed that WCC needs to hire two Early Childhood Educators/Infant Toddler (ECE/IT) teachers to keep the programs running. That puts 16-20 children out of daycare spots; that puts 16-20 families struggling to juggle work schedules between parents, and the chance that one parent might have to give up work or families to find a suitable babysitter/nanny.

When workers, from out of province or country, come to live and work in Whistler like many do, their qualifications do not follow them. B.C. seems to have its own standards that do not recognize qualifications from outside of B.C. by our licensing board nor our government. It can take eight weeks — sometimes six months — to have the proper paperwork done and sometimes workers need to take more schooling.

Whistler is a unique place to live, as all of you have come to know. We can't afford to turn workers away, especially ECE/IT workers and especially when the Olympics are around the corner.

Then there is the affordable housing issue versus the low wages that some jobs pay. We need to fix these problems or we will not have anyone here to provide the services that our guests and families have come to expect, again, especially with the Olympics around the corner. It needs to come from all levels of government — federal, provincial, municipal — and from store owners and landlords.

We can't afford to lose anymore families and qualified workers from the Sea to Sky corridor. Who will be left working in the resort in 2010? We need solutions and we need them now.

When I talked to my two-year old son about the possible closures, he said to me, "I won't be able to play with my friends?" The Spring Creek area was approved with the stipulations that Intrawest would provide a fire hall, an elementary/community school and a daycare. How can you close the daycare and risk the families leaving our community?