Esquimalt daycare closure highlights problem: Wait lists for spaces expected to grow
Rebecca Aldous
Victoria News
February 26, 2009

By the end of June, parents of 16 children who attend one of Esquimalt’s affordable child-care centres will be looking for a new place to take their sons and daughters.

“I was devastated when I heard (of Unity Day Care Centre’s closure),” said Meagan Brame….

Brame’s operation has already felt the effect of Unity’s pending last day. Half of the parents have added their names to … wait list. “I’ve got probably 20 people on my wait list and of those 20, probably 10 need spots now,” she said.

It’s not uncommon for Greater Victoria child care centres to have wait lists and closures only compound the situation. CFB Esquimalt opened a child-care centre for military families in the former Lampson elementary school this month. But only a couple of spaces will be freed up at Saxe Point Day Care as military kids transfer over, Brame said.

Four years ago, she was forced to cut four daycare spots due to a lack of qualified staff. While early child educator graduates are looking for work, experienced staff don’t stick around, opting for higher-paying jobs, she said.

… is expecting approximately 12 children to move to the military day care, said manager…. But the Esquimalt child care centre, which sees 96 children come through its doors everyday, has a 100-name long wait list for infants and toddlers and 50 on its preschool list.

“I have got parents who actually haven’t given birth yet on my wait list,” … said. “Two months pregnant and they are already on my wait list.”

More government subsidies are needed so centres can pay employees enough to keep them, she said. Some staff are paid as low as $12 an hour, but V… would see the average wage raised to at least $20. “Without government funding and without charging parents through the roof, we really can’t afford to do that.”

While wait lists are the norm, the number of licensed spaces regionwide has fallen slightly from 5,141 spaces in 2007 to the current 5,109, according to Enid Elliot, chair of the Victoria Regional Child Care Council, an industry advocacy group.

“The total licensed spaces needed for our region would be about 24,500 (spaces),” she said. Parents cover nearly 80 per cent of child care costs, far more than in most other developed countries, Elliott said.

While local operators worry about staffing challenges and parents fret over the availability of spaces, Linda Reid, Minister of State for Child Care, paints a less bleak picture of the industry….