Campbell River Child Care Planning Committee

We are very concerned about the future viability of many group child care programs in our community. The Child Care Operating Funding Program (C-COF) is going to kill them. One of our infant/toddler centres will be loosing about $1500 per month after April 1st. They are already struggling because the loss of social needs day care subsidies have hit families that can no longer afford their services, subsidies have become more difficult to access, and the cost of caring for infant and toddlers remains high! A before and after, out of school program anticipates a loss of about $2000 each month with the loss of the FAP transition and CCP. Another group centre with 3-5 year olds and school age children will loose about $5,000 a month! People are talking about cutting wages? (the averages wage for an ECE here is $11.87) Increasing the child/staff ratio? Closing their doors? None of the strategies are healthy for children, parents and/or professional child care workers, but we can not see the light at the end of the tunnel any longer!