Child care challenges persist
Rossland News
By Andrew Bennett
October 28, 2010 9:00 AM

The Golden Bear Child Care Centre on Spokane Street took the Rossland News on a tour of their facility to discuss the services it provides to the community, supported by the recent rent waiver granted by council.

The centre is widely recognized for excellence, being awarded three platinums and one gold (an award each year) from Kootenay Business for top child care in the West Kootenay.

Nevertheless, "we have great difficulty recruiting qualified, licensed staff. That's a huge limitation for us," said Rebecca Stirling of Golden Bear.

Workers have university degrees in early childhood education plus special certificates, but only receive $16 per hour.

At any one time, the daycare has the facilities to accommodate 12 children under three years of age, 24 between three and five years of age, and 10 school-age children. But there is also a provincially legislated ratio of four children to one worker.

"We need to revisit their remuneration," Sterling said. "I have children on the wait list, but I don't have staff."

Whether the money made available by the rent waiver will go into an increased hourly rate or something else "is yet to be determined," she said.

"Once wages are paid," Stirling continued, "everything else, 100 per cent, goes back into the program. We pay for swimming lessons, we pay for field trips."

"The other big piece is that our families in receipt of subsidy are given a reduced per diem rate so that we're not exclusive to those who can afford it," Stirling emphasized. "The community owns this centre, so we have an obligation to be open to any child."

Places in the daycare are awarded on a number of criteria. Rossland families get priority over those from Warfield and Trail. Full-time working families get priority over part-time, but both have priority over families with a stay-at-home parent.

Some money is spent on quality of life. "We don't use any bleach," Stirling said. Instead they use a hydrogen-peroxide-based cleaner at roughly four times the cost. Golden Bear also uses environmentally friendly soaps and non-toxic salt on their pavement in winter.

If the daycare chose to use regular products, Stirling estimates their annual cleaning materials bill of $3,000 would be reduced to $1,000.

Looking around, it is clear the grants the organization earned and the renovations they made have brought a new gleam to what was, a few years ago, a decrepit shack….

"We are really rich in [learning] resources," Stirling added. "We have amazing families in this community. Lots of donations, lots of fundraising, and previous boards who worked really hard."