It’s been a year since I wrote a Port McNeill in Focus column about the childcare crisis and the desperate need to see more spaces created in town. Since then, not much has changed and in fact things may have even deteriorated.
Without more childcare availability, growth in our town will be stifled. More importantly, families are being negatively affected due to cost and stress associated with finding and keeping care at the very stage of life that is most critical for a child’s development.
During and preceding the most recent municipal election campaign some of our elected officials expressed the need to focus attention on families. Our current progressive NDP government has been offering huge incentives of up to $1 million per facility to help create new childcare spaces. Despite this, there appears to be no one on council who is currently actively working towards this. Should a more conservative government get elected, I’m concerned that this funding opportunity will disappear before anyone has taken advantage of it.
I am also very concerned about recent events at one of the two licensed daycares in town, Huckleberry House, run by the North Island Community Services Society (NICSS) (For disclosure I am a parent of two children who attend Huckleberry House and my father sits on NICSS’ board of directors).
Last year NICSS did not get an application in to the Universal Child Care Prototype pilot, which could have led to $10 a day daycare and saved families hundreds of dollars per month.
Additionally, some of the policies which they revised last fall appear to have the effect of constraining access to daycare. For example, they do not allow families to access temporary spaces created by temporary vacancies (created, for example, when families are away on vacation or when caregivers become available after seasonal work) even though there are families who would gladly access temporary care, and even under circumstances where staffing levels aren’t affected. The effect of this is less money in the family bank account and further constrained access. Furthermore, I imagine these policies disproportionally negatively affect low-income families.
Within the context of a town with few or no other viable options families don’t have real choice. While acknowledging issues may exist, NICSS is so far totally unwilling to review or amend policies, even in a way that could ensure continued financial viability, until the fall because they insist on sticking to an arbitrary timetable. What this seems to indicate is that they are totally out of touch with the urgency of the childcare crisis and the impact their policies have on families. Thankfully the saving grace for our family is that we find the front-line staff to be wonderful (and deserve a raise in our opinion), and we know our children are well taken care of.
I sincerely hope that in a year’s time from now I can write that the situation has changed and organizations have stopped leaving money out on the table, and more families can access affordable care in our town.
Matt Martin is a freelance writer living in Port McNeill and he is interested in social issues such as child care, housing, transportation, education, food security, and local politics.