UVic childcare bursting at the seams
Saanich News.com
By Kyle Slavin
September 28, 2009

Photo: Two-and-a-half year old Ben Colby pops a bubble during a 'play-in' held to draw attention to the need for child care at the University of Victoria. Colby's dad Jason is a professor at the university.

When Ben Colby was still a newborn in an El Paso emergency room, his dad was in Saanich interviewing for a teaching job at the University of Victoria.

"Ironically, the big reason we moved here (from Texas) is because it's a wonderful place to raise our kids," said Ben’s dad, Jason Colby.

But when his wife, Kelly, decided to go back to work, the couple realized there were some hitches with childcare availability in Greater Victoria.

"When we came out here, Kelly did not have a job yet and so it didn't seem like our feet were to the fire, so to speak. And we hadn't really grasped the emergency of the situation, the dire nature of the childcare problem here," Jason said. "Then we sort of came to this realization that it was much harder to get into the university childcare system than we had realized."

The Colbys were in the same boat as hundreds of other parents – faculty, staff and students at UVic, who are on a childcare waiting list that, according to some, has lasted up to four years….

"This is not about attacking the board of governors, it's more, 'We're behind you, but we're going to keep pushing,'" said Stephen Ross, co-chair of the action group. "We're trying to do this as collaboratively as we can."

The university's board of governors met Monday and Tuesday, after the News' print deadline, to address the issue (Go to www.saanichnews.com for updated information). The UVic Childcare Action Group has sent letters and a petition to the board.

Barbara Whittington, one of the board members, attended the play-in Thursday, and offered a glimmer of hope for the discussion….

"We faxed it from the hospital. We actually asked a nurse to do it, and she didn't seem at all surprised," said Ross. "It's become quite regular to apply for daycare from the maternity ward." And that, he said, proves how much of a crisis there is.

"Finding care for your children in this city is an incredibly stressful situation because there's simply not enough room," he said.

Thursday's rally drummed up support from faculty and students, Ross said, because the need for childcare doesn't only impact parents, it ripples down and hits students hard too.

"It has a direct impact on how much time I spend on campus, how much time I spend working," he said….

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Childcare stats:

In UVic childcare, there are 38 spaces for children under three, 50 spaces for children aged 3-5, and 50 spaces for after-school care (a total of 138 spaces).

Simon Fraser University has a total of 234 childcare spaces (84 for under threes; 100 for 3- to 5-year-old; 50 after school care spots).

The University of British Columbia has a total of 470 childcare spaces (120 for under threes; 200 for 2- to 5-year-olds; 110 for after school care; 40 half-day preschool spots).