Child-care plan encounters local skeptics

The federal government’s 2017 budget plan to spend $7 billion over 10 years to create up to 40,000 new and affordable childcare spaces across the country was met with some skepticism by capital region residents.

“They’ve promised spaces for years,” said Tara Mundy, an early childhood educator at ABC Infant Care. “There are some grants … but it’s complicated.”

In the 2016 budget, the government provided $500 million for child care and early learning.

The 2017 budget axes a 25 per cent tax credit program that was meant to entice employers to create child care in their communities. Uptake was low, the government said.

Mundy said demand for child care is so high in Victoria that her daycare centre has a wait list up to 70 children long. While spaces do pop up, some parents could wait a year for a spot.

“Some parents put their kids on the wait lists when they’re pregnant. You kind of have to,” Mundy said.

According to Island Health, there are fewer than 200 infant child-care spaces at licensed facilities in Victoria.

Mundy said finding staff and suitable places to open or expand daycares is another issue.

“We need better ways to get staffing, like subsidizing school and building proper spaces,” she said. “Right now, the only way to make money in child care is opening your own space. But who can afford the year of licensing and finding a space in this market?”

Christine Kenwood, executive director at the 1Up Single Parent Resource Centre, agreed that solving the child-care issue is tricky but necessary.

“Finding child care can be a vicious cycle. You have to find a space to work and work at a job where you can afford it, a goodpaying job,” Kenwood said. “Parents end up scrambling to do what they can. I know a professor who took an unpaid leave because they couldn’t find child care.”

Kenwood also said staffing is an issue. For infant daycares, there needs to be at least one staff person per four babies. Many places require training in earlychildhood education.

“There are not enough people to work in the child-care spaces now,” she said. “It’s a valuable profession — taking care of our children, our future — but the pay is inadequate for the work.”

According to the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, at least 49 per cent of early-childhood educators earned less than $15 an hour in 2012. Recent job postings in Victoria show hourly wages in the $16 range.

The “living wage” in the capital region in 2016 was $20.02 an hour, according to a report by the Community Social Planning Council.

Randall Garrison, NDP MP for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, said the targeted 40,000 child-care spaces across the country would translate to about 400 new spaces in B.C.

“We need a national child-care program that makes it affordable and creates spaces,” he said.

The budget includes a plan for a national framework on early learning and child care, along with a framework for indigenous families, but it does not include details about how spaces will be created and what the costs might be.

Infrastructure for child-care spaces is part of a planned $3.4billion investment in the budget, along with cultural and recreational facilities. According to the budget, at least 209 urgent repairs are being made to indigenous child care facilities in 2017.

The budget eliminates the Labour Market Impact Assessment processing fee for families who make less than $150,000 a year and want to hire a foreign caregiver. It also extends parental leaves to 18 months. However, employment insurance benefits for parents on leave remain at a 12-month maximum.