Corporate childcare is not the solution to University of Victoria crisis
Georgia Straight
By Enid Elliot, chair of the Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council
Nov 4, 2009

The University of Victoria is facing a child-care crisis. There are not enough spaces in the existing child-care services, so young faculty and staff cannot find care for their children and students must scramble to pay the cost of the childcare since subsidies are inadequate. This is a crisis throughout our region and throughout our province.

The Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council has been monitoring and reporting on the child-care situation in our area for the past 10 years. We have heard from parents of the stress they experience finding good situations for their children. All too often parents must cobble together fragile strategies for the care of their children. We have also heard from the early childhood programs their concerns about finding good educators, paying them decent wages, and having to charge parents higher fees. The Quality of Life Challenge, a yearly analysis of the cost of living in Victoria for a family of four, tells us that childcare is the second largest expense facing a family after housing. An affordable, accessible, and high-quality system of childcare would benefit our community economically and socially.

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