Quebec’s long day care shadow: Childcare lessons for British Columbia are many, say advocates
Whistler Pique
2009-03-18
By Paul Carlucci

Seldom do Western Canadians look east with much other than ….And yet, there's a core of Western Canadians who have wide eyes cast east - the early childhood education and childcare set. Quebec's childcare system has long been the envy of the rest of Canada, and in British Columbia perhaps more so than elsewhere.

Low wages after a long educational slog, high child vulnerability, care spaces lost behind locked doors - it goes on. And then on some more. And yet, much of it can be summarized in one statistic. According to Julia Black, an early childhood educator and instructor at Capilano University, Canada's infant mortality rate has risen to five per cent in recent years, and B.C. is almost on par with 4.4 per cent.

Black brought those numbers to a recent childcare panel in Squamish. She was joined by Stephanie Seaman, chair of the B.C. Government and Services Employees Union (BCGEU) local; Hilary Bloom, children's librarian and mother; and Suzie Samon, director of early childhood development for Sea to Sky Community Services (SSCS).

"The strength of community development and economic development depends on our children and families," Black said. "The strength of our children depends on our families. The strength of your families depends on our leaders. In communities, we are all interconnected."

The notion of strong leadership was raised several times throughout the evening. Seaman, who has spent time in New Zealand, framed the country as well ahead of Canada on account of that government's move to recognize the rights of a child. When the law was made, said Seaman, women occupied leadership positions, not least of which was the highest office.

With a provincial election around the corner, these women are encouraging people to pepper their politicians with demands for childcare commitments. Moderator Andrea Duncan recently made her way to Squamish council chambers, where local politicians favoured the proclamation of Social Services Awareness Month, which happened in conjunction with National Public Works Week. In the background, news of Whistler's Teddy Bear and Spring Creek daycare closures has been making headlines, and presumably drawing eyeballs….

"I have experienced the hunt for daycare first hand," said the very pregnant Bloom, who already has a child, "and I've found the lack of availability, especially for children under 18 months, to be, frankly, shocking and stressful - and hard to manage.

"The current model of providing education to children only once they are school-aged, to me, is based on a 1970s model of how families operate."

These days, people work - both parents, often. The corridor is not a friendly place when it comes to bank accounts, and there are a host of other economic pressures pushing ever inwards.

According to Samon, there are 1,900 individuals, from Squamish to Pemberton, taking part in 36 different SSCS programs, excluding things like drug prevention. But staffing is a daunting challenge. In Squamish, for example, there is room for 20 children in the building downtown - but the organization only has adequate staffing for 12 spaces. Meanwhile, she said, almost 400 babies were born in Squamish in 2008. Clearly, the pressures will build.

…. Many early childhood educators stop practising for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the burnout that comes with unsustainable incomes. B.C. has introduced retroactive student loan assistance programs, but, said Samon, they don't help. Neither does a $4.5 million fund of incentive grants designed to lure former practitioners back into the field.

In fact, these efforts strike industry people as offensively weak.

"I think part of the piece that's missing is when our governments think about investing in infrastructure they don't think about investing in social infrastructure," said Seaman.

….And so the call for political participation was underscored again and again. On the face of it, people in this riding may see an advantage in Joan McIntrye, a woman and cabinet minister.

On the other hand, she is a Liberal, and the government is under heavy fire for introducing and passing Bill 42, otherwise known as the gag law. That law forbids any person or organization from spending more than $3,000 in an electoral district, or $150,000 province-wide, on advertising 88 days before a campaign. Of course, politicians are exempt.

And so BCGEU is imploring the public to storm all candidates' debates and get the issue on the agenda.

In the meantime, Quebec …At 11 years old, the system costs $7 a day, up from $5 when it started. By 2012, the government is hoping to have 100 per cent participation for those who need or want it, and that number currently sits at a solid 70 per cent. As a result, child poverty rates are much less than in other jurisdictions, while increased government income tax revenues help subsidize the whole system.

"And they started that system during an economic downturn," said Seaman.