Whistler’s child care needs could change after election
The Dandelion Daycare Society hopes to be in a position to break ground on the new Spring Creek day care facility in May for an October or November opening.
"We have hired a project manager and we are just waiting for the land titles to be exchanged," said children’s centre director Marian Hardy. "Everybody involved knows that time is of the essence and that we need to get this centre up and running as early as possible," she said.
"We are aiming for a fall opening and the personnel administrator and myself are starting a recruitment drive for the new staff."
The Spring Creek day care will house about 65 children. "Because of the high need for infant and toddler care, that will be our main focus," noted Hardy. "We want to open with 24 spaces for children between zero and three years of age."
There will be 41 spaces for kids aged three to five.
The day care society hasn’t yet decided on who will be attending the Spring Creek centre. It will be a feeder for the new elementary school in the subdivision so ideally the day care will draw from the same school boundaries once they are decided by the Howe Sound School Board.
"It would be silly for us to start a boundary and find out it is quite different from the school one," Hardy said.
Some parents desperate for day care, however, may be happy to drive from Emerald to Spring Creek but Hardy said traffic, in keeping with the TAG strategy, must also be kept to minimum coming in and out of Spring Creek when the centre opens.
"We do want to be careful with the amount of traffic, but the first priority is the needs of the parents and children. It may just be that people get offered a space in whichever building we have one," noted Hardy.
"Obviously some parents are making requests for Spring Creek and once we know we will be on schedule for opening, we will be contacting them. We will still proceed with our waitlist the way it is. If you are near the top, you will get dealt with first."
Hardy hopes the new centre will make a significant dent in Whistler’s day care waitlist but she said projections are difficult as needs are constantly changing. The picture could also change under a Liberal government.
"There are a lot of issues to look at right now," she said. "The NDP government has legislated the Child Care B.C. program and if there is a change in government, we don't know what is going to happen to those child care dollars."
The Child Care B.C. Program is government’s move towards a publicly funded model of universal child care. Already, after school care is cheaper for Whistler parents, along with the rest of B.C., through the program. The next step would be to expand the funding to include toddlers and infants "The NDP got it legislated but the Liberals are talking about taking it out," said Hardy.
Liberal social development critic Katherine Whittred has said the NDP doesn’t have the money or the mandate to impose a "poorly planned $1 billion child care scheme."
She said the government is facing a real budget deficit of hundreds of millions and that a one-size-fits-all child care plan is not the way to go. She said there are patients, students and families with special needs children who are all facing serious challenges in accessing the services they need. "We need to work with parents and child care providers to identify the areas of greatest need – whether that be early education resources or services for special needs children – and to ensure that resources are focused on families who need them most," says Whittred.
"I think, regardless of who is in the driving seat in government, we as the voters need to ask them what they are going to do about child care and how they are going to support it," said Hardy.
There are, however, no worries over funding for the $1 million first phase of the Spring Creek facility. The money is now all in the bag, with the final $250,000 donation that came from the Houghton brothers in exchange for development rights.
Intrawest, through negotiations with the municipality, donated the Spring Creek day care site plus $300,000 worth of design and construction costs. The society also got a $250,000 boost from the Whistler-Blackcomb Foundation and this was matched by a facilities and equipment grant from the province.
The Dandelion Daycare Society is now starting a fundraising drive to raise dollars to replace the old roof on the Whistler Children’s Centre off Lorimer road.
Hardy said the scope of the re-roofing project still needs to be defined and the final cost is yet unknown but a benefit will be taking place at Garfinkel’s on Sunday, April 29.
Tickets are $5. The doors open at 9 p.m. and there will be door, raffle and cash prizes to be won.
The 10 th annual flower sale is also in the works. "We will have flowers and hanging baskets," said Hardy. "The order forms are available right now and people can contact the centre."
