Child care centres opting in on fee reductions

Mark NIELSEN

The deadline has been extended but it appears most local child care centres are already well ahead of the game when it comes to signing on to the provincial government’s fee reduction program.

Providers now have until April 20 to opt in to the program and still give parents a break effective April 1, the start of the government’s fiscal year. Those who miss the deadline can still opt in at a future date but the reduction will come into effect only at that time.

The deadline, which was originally set for March 27, was extended on Monday in response to an outcry from some operators who have complained the initiative was rushed and the program details unclear.

But all but one of the seven providers reached by The Citizen said they have already signed contracts allowing for the break. For most, any trouble they had was cleared up with a phone call to the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

“I had some problems with downloading forms but eventually I was able to download it and fill it out,” said Mila Beaman of Always Sunshine Daycare.

Lariah Sanchez of Lariah’s Little Learners said she’s heard some complaints about the difference in breaks given to group care and family care.

Parents of toddlers in group care will get as much as a $350-per-month reduction while those in family care get $200. Likewise, the reduction for each child aged 3-5 in group care will be $100 versus $60 for family care.

But Sanchez, whose centre is designated family care, has no trouble with the difference.

“In my opinion, I think it’s totally fair because family child care and in-home multi-age child care is cheaper than group home child care is, so obviously they’re going to give more money and funding to group child care because it’s more expensive for parents,” she said.

With the break, Sanchez said one of her parents will be paying just $10 per month.

More than one noted that that the reduction applies only to children five years old and younger. Kathleen McAulay, whose Abra-Kid-Abra Day is strictly for before and after school, has opted in on the assumption that six-year-olds who are still in kindergarten will still qualify.

“It would’ve been nice if they included all the parents,” she said. “Even if say a Grade 1 or 3 or 6 was even $50 a month, it would’ve been nice to present it as a reduction to all my parents, not just the kindergarten parents.”

But she expects that within two years, it will be expanded to include all ages in child care.

Lynette Mikalishen, the child care services director for the YMCA of Northern B.C. hopes Victoria will soon address wages for staff at daycares. High turnover has been an issue, she said, due to the low pay which starts at $16-$17 an hour once they’ve completed their early childhood education certificate.

“They’re hard, labourious jobs and it’s not just babysitting a child,” Mikalishen said.

Licensed providers who sign on will get a 10-per-cent increase in their operating funding but must also get ministry permission to increase their fees, even if they are hit with unexpected jumps in costs.

“If this happens, any provider who has opted in must request approval to increase their fees from the ministry,” MCFD said in an email. “The ministry will review these circumstances on a case-bycase basis.”

McAulay likened the condition to a business owner signing her rights away.

“We have a break-even program,” McAulay noted. “It’s a private company, I own it, but I don’t do it for profit. My whole initiative is, instead of retiring 10 years ago, I said well, I’ll keep it open, we’ll keep the rates low. As long as we break even, we’ll keep it going.”

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We are close to record levels of snow, thanks to the massive dump of unseasonable snow overnight. Prince George is also experiencing near-record temperatures.

It’s a rare year when March came in like a lion and is also going out like a lion.

“It’ll be hard to hide the Easter eggs in the whole central interior,” said meteorologist Jennifer Hay at the Environment Canada headquarters in Vancouver. “I’ve been digging into the numbers for your area, and I guess you have been digging, too. Sorry about that.”

Some areas of the city experienced about 30 centimetres of snow overnight. The numbers were higher at the upper elevations and less snowfall in the Bowl. Hay said she remembered that disparity well, from her time living on the Hart in the mid-1990s, shoveling more than her downtown friends.

“What I can tell you from our official recording station at the Prince George Airport is Prince George got 19 centimetres (7.5 inches) of snow, which brought the city’s snow base up from 32 centimetres on the ground to 51 centimetres on

The massive dump of new snow instantly puffed up the mood of skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers.

The flakes began to drop late Thursday evening, it became an onslaught from the sky, and outdoor recreation facilities woke up Friday morning to a new lease on life.

It amounted to a hill of fluffy opportunity for the Hart Highlands Winter Club (HHWC), but only for today. It certainly made their spring goodbye party one for the record books.

“This dump is fantastic for conditions as we did have some spots starting to open up where we were unable to the ground. That is a significant amount of snow for this time of year, definitely.”

Fort St. James had 57 centimetres on the ground Friday, after the 20 centimetres they got from this passing storm. Burns Lake only got 15 centimetres from the storm, but their current accumulation is 68 centimetres.

“They were already high and now they are deeper in it,” said Hay.

Meanwhile Quesnel got no additional snow so their ground snow is still at only 33 centimetres.

Because the snowfall happened from mid-evening to early morning, the event got bisected by the midnight date change, so it was not possible to ascertain if it was a record amount in

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There have been differences between the numbers shown in the contracts and those presented in an online calculator providers have been given to estimate the funding they will get, but Sanchez has been taking that issue in stride.

“I’m not worried about it,” she said. “I know that the government is trying to help the daycares and they’re trying to help the parents with the money and I’m confident in them correcting anything that is wrong at the moment.”

As of last Saturday, the rate for opting in has been 85 per cent for the 765 providers province-wide whose contracts had been processed, according to MCFD.

— with files from Jennifer Saltman, Vancouver Sun