Lake daycare facing funding crisis
Cowichan Valley Citizen
Dec 25 2009
By: Lexi Bainas

Trying not to be the Grinch that stole Christmas, the board of Lake Cowichan's Kaatza Daycare has still been forced to announce fee increases to parents and cutbacks for staff.

It's been tough, says board member Belinda Waller. "Basically, we're trying to create better than just babysitters. We want to give children a strong start."

The centre, which has operated since 1974, serves about 35 children on a full- and part-time basis.

Now parents are facing another $100 a month for full-time children, with part-timers pro-rated from that, she said.

Manager Wendy Fetchko has worked there for 16 years and has seen many changes in the world of early childcare, not all for the better.

Daycares need regular funding so the facilities are available to everybody, she said.

"We've had to raise the fees and I had a young mom last night tell me she was going to have to quit her job because she can't afford an extra $100 a month. I don't know if she will but that's what she said. And then she said, 'Merry Christmas'."

"And I said, 'I know, we're feeling the same way. The staffers have to make some choices as well'."

While greater regulation and oversight are worthwhile and needed to ensure centres are well run, the amount of complicated bookkeeping and paperwork is pushing the duties beyond the capacity of volunteer boards, she said.

Meanwhile, a steady degrading of the funding available is discouraging people from considering the field of early childcare as a career, according to both Waller and Fetchko.

Both also agreed that Lake Cowichan's Kaatza operation is not the only centre facing the same difficulties.

The board is holding a raffle for a cruise, selling cookbooks and soliciting donations from the community in an effort to keep afloat but they've had to make some tough internal choices, too.

"The income we're bringing in isn't enough to cover our expenses. We've given the staff three different options and they have to now go and chew on them," Waller said.

There was a notice that went out to parents about the $100 fee jump, too, she said, adding, "That is a substantial increase."

Waller and the board wrestled with the problems last week.

"We started our board meeting at 6 p.m. and it was almost 11 before we got out of there because it's just really hard. We don't want to lose the daycare so we're doing whatever we can to keep it open," she said.

"It would be a huge loss to our community to try and find other quality care because all our people are trained early childhood educators and they love children. Kids who go through that kind of program also enter school with just a bit of a head-start, too."

She said that funding difficulties are forcing workers out of the field and Fetchko agreed, saying that she and her staff were hard-pressed.

"The Direct Access Gaming grant didn't come in this year. It was $18,000. There was also $3,000 we were getting from the Council of the Families that was left over from the universal child care program that the Liberals brought in and then the Conservatives cancelled. That money came in February or March and just seemed to get us out of the crunch we were in at that time. That's gone, too," Fetchko said.

Then, on top of that, dividends from Chances Cowichan for the bingo that the centre does have dropped from $3,200 to $1,300.

"All of those things came at the same time. No wonder the board is looking at some very tough choices. I don't envy them, either," she said….