Park board scuttles Kidstreet Clubhouse daycare: Cut affects more than 100 kids
Vancouver Courier
By Sandra Thomas
July 27, 2010

… Despite the park board’s efforts, the out-of-school care program at Champlain Heights Community School will likely not return in September.

That means the parents of more than 100 children registered or on the waiting list for the Kidstreet Clubhouse before-and-after school care program are scrambling to find alternatives just weeks before the school year begins in a city infamous for its lack of affordable daycare.

Champlain parent Christa Norgren said she has no idea where her nine-year-old daughter will go for before-and-after school care starting this September.

“So far all I know is it will mean a lot more running around,” said Norgren, a single parent with four jobs.

In February, parents of children attending Kidstreet received a letter explaining the Champlain Heights Community Association could no longer oversee the operation of the program due to park board budget cuts. Facing a $2.8 million operating budget shortfall for 2010, last November the park board announced it would be forced to close facilities and cut staff positions. …

“I don’t know what to plan for my child or for my work,” she said. “And there is no handy alternative.”

Norgren notes some parents are so desperate to find daycare close to home they’re considering unregistered private operators. “And that can be risky,” she said.

In response to concerns from worried parents, in February park board chair Vision Vancouver commissioner Aaron Jasper promised to find another operator to take over the program. But on July 15, parents were informed there will be no replacement for the now defunct program. Jasper said he and park board staff did everything they could to save the program, but he said the logistics became too complicated, particularly when dealing with the union locals. He said the daycare employees belong to one union local, while the operators that could have potentially taken over Kidstreet work with another. “So even though other operators wanted to step up to the plate, they had different contracts than the collective agreement in place,” he said. “That was a serious hurdle.”…

Vision Vancouver school board trustee Sharon Gregson, who is also a member of the city’s Joint Council on Child Care, said Vancouver cannot afford to lose daycare spaces. The joint council is a committee of elected officials and staff from city council, the park board and school board….

 “I’m going to stress at the meeting that the party responsible for this crisis is the provincial government and the absence of a child care plan,” said Gregson. “Because there’s no support from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, child care is left up to communities and civic partners.” …