Taking the region’s pulse: Vital Signs 2012

Daniel Palmer, Victoria News

The Victoria Foundation released its annual report card on Tuesday, highlighting a greater need for social housing and daycare in the Capital Region, as well as inflated wait times for children needing surgery.

The Vital Signs report provides a sweeping overview of the Capital Region’s economy, environmental health, arts, safety, transportation and seven other indicators.

It combines a range of provincial and national statistics with citizen perception to highlight community successes and shortcomings.

“There are tremendous drives being made in homelessness (and) there’s an increase in daycare spaces,” said foundation executive director Sandra Richardson.

Although 300 more daycare spots were added in Greater Victoria last year, it’s still not nearly enough to meet demand, Richardson said.

“With 19,000 children needing daycare and just over 5,000 daycare spaces … it’s still perceived as not enough,” she said….