Businesses sought for help in child care crisis
Squamish Chief
KIM VANLOCHEM
JUNE 19, 2009

SQUAMISH – The first step in improving the child care crisis is the business community, said Julia Black, co-ordinator of Putting Children First program, who asked for help during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon …

Child care providers are fighting a crisis situation, fuelled by declining wages for early childhood educators that barely allow them to make a living, according to local and province-wide child care advocates.

“It takes a community to raise a child,” said Black. “We want to build a broader understanding of Early Childhood Development among the business community.”

The Chamber’s guest speakers for the luncheon, Black and Suzie Soman, director of early childhood development services for the non-profit Sea to Sky Community Services Society (SSCS), implored the business community to get involved.

“Our MLA said the government does not hear from enough families. We need advocacy municipally, provincially and federally. The business community has an important voice that needs to be heard,” Black said.

In Canada, only 0.16 per cent of the Gross National Product is actually invested in Early Childhood Development, said Black, who added the government needs to invest at least one percent to change the tides.

Black said child vulnerability in the Howe Sound is 27.5 per cent, which means that only 63 per cent of children are considered ready for kindergarten….

In the Sea to Sky Corridor there are only eight licensed childcare spaces per 100 children. Soman said there is a severe shortage of qualified staff.

“Right now someone who does one year of school would start at about $15.75 an hour but we are pushing to get everyone making at least $20 an hour,” Soman said….

“As a result we have limited childcare seats available, less than one space for every 10 children,” Soman said. “Increasing birth rates in the area means fewer spaces available in the future for working families.”…