Looming care centre closure saddens parent, disturbs advocates -- YWCA early learning facility faces projected $120,000 deficit
Janaya Fuller-Evans
Vancouver Courier
February 5, 2010

The planned closure of the YWCA's Citygate Early Learning and Care Centre has eight families scrambling for daycare spots for next September.

Parents were told …that the centre for children ages three to five, which serves 25 families, would close Aug. 31. Seventeen of the children are heading to kindergarten in the fall.

Parents like Gabriela Silva, whose three-year-old daughter Roberta attends the centre, are now searching for spots around the city….

The centre …. is putting the remaining eight children on waiting lists at other centres and has provided them with information packages, said Silva, who lives on the East Side.

"It is the same situation with every daycare," Silva said. "If we're lucky, we get a spot."

She added that the closure is unfortunate because the city has too few daycare spaces.

"There are not enough daycares in Vancouver," Silva said. "How can they close this one?"

Janet Austin, CEO of YWCA Vancouver, said the centre is being closed because the cost of running it is too high.

"It was opened more than 10 years ago," Austin said. "Basically we have had to subsidize it the entire time."

The centre's operating costs were $433,000 this year. Citygate received just over $70,000 in grants from the province and an $11,736 grant from the city this year.

"Parent fees don't anywhere near cover it [the difference]," Austin said. Parents pay $750 per month.

The centre is facing a projected $120,000 deficit for 2010….

The government needs to step in to support these programs, she said. "The province has taken the important first step [with] full day kindergarten," Austin said, but added more needs to be done.

Twenty-five per cent of the children cared for at the centre have special needs.

The closure is the canary in the coal mine for special needs children's programs, according to Dawn Steele, co-administrator of Moms on the Move, an advocacy group for special needs children.

"It's very disturbing, really," Steele said….

"Everything is landing on the kids who can least afford it," said Steele, whose 16-year-old son is autistic. "Daycare is really critical to them [special needs children]."…

"It is utterly depressing as the parent of a child who needs this help," Steele said. "[There's] nothing left to fight for anymore."