Last week the Whistler Children's Centre Society announced that the Spring Creek daycare would not be reopening after closing its doors in late 2008 as a result of a qualified teacher shortage and issues with the size of the classrooms. Now the WCSS is in discussions with the Resort Municipality of Whistler, which owns the property and building, and with donors at the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation on the future of the facility.
At the time of the closure the WCCS suggested that the issues affecting the daycare are province-wide and that it was only a matter of time before other daycares and programs started to close in the corridor.
Sure enough, Sea to Sky Community Services (SSCS) recently announced a round of daycare cuts, including the Little Deers preschool program in Pemberton which will wrap up at the end of August; and the infant-toddler programs at the SSCS Early Learning and Childcare Development Centre at the end of June. The SSCS Bear Cubs program will close at the end of August.
"SSCS has been working diligently over the past few years to ensure the ongoing sustainability of our child-care services," said Suzie Soman, director of early child development services. "These services depend, for the most part, on child-care fees with little additional outside funding. Fees consequently have continuously been on the rise to try to maintain service as delivery costs increase such as wages, pensions and benefits. However, we find ourselves at this time in the difficult situation of no longer being able to sustain the same level of service."
There will be a new service in Pemberton offering up to a full-day program with eight spaces available beginning in September.
As well, parents in the Bear Cubs program have the option to join the expanded full- or half-day Dragonflies pre-school program.
Meanwhile, the Whistler Children's Centre Society is looking at its future without Spring Creek.
The facility had several challenges. For one thing, the smaller classroom spaces meant that class sizes had to be smaller to meet provincial regulations, which in turn would make it impossible for the classes to cover costs. Spring Creek did look at renovating the space to make the classroom sizes similar to their facility at Nesters, and found that the cost would be in the neighbourhood of $1,050,000.
"At the program at Nesters we offer two IT (infant-toddler) programs licensed for 12 students each, and at Spring Creek we were only licensed for eighth because of the square footage," explained Kari Gaudet, director of child care services for the WCSS.
"For the older age groups we are licensed for 25 kids in two groups, while the Spring Creek location was only licensed for 16 and 22 per room. That is not enough cover our costs, even if we were full on most days.
"A lot of the time we only had three to five kids in a program when we had space for 22."
Gaudet said they could have enlarged the classrooms if there was a need, but that wouldn't address the larger issue of the shortage of qualified teachers.
Across B.C. daycares are facing a lack of instructors with Infant Toddler and Early Childhood Educator certificates that are required by the Province of B.C. to work with younger children. Meanwhile few students are taking the courses because it can take three years to become fully certified for a relatively low-paying profession that has a high burnout rate.
As well, there's an issue with competition. The demand for infant and toddler programs up to the age of three is extremely high, after which point the numbers decline as parents enroll their children in other programs like Ski Scamps, the Teddy Bear Day Care and early Montessori and Waldorf programs. Because the older age groups allow for more students and fewer teachers in the classroom, the older kids subsidize daycare programs for kids in infant and toddler programs where the ratio of teachers to children is higher.
Still, Gaudet says that they are going to work to meet the demand for the youngest age groups.
"We're looking further down the road and one thing we'd like to do at our (Nesters) location is add one more infant-toddler program because that's where the demand is, it's not for kids three to five," Gaudet explained. "We're looking to add an extra room to the facility we have so we're not spread too thin in meeting the community's needs."
Roughly 26 families were impacted by the closure of the Spring Creek daycare, although many have since been accommodated by the Nesters facility or other programs in town.
Suzanne Pardoe, a mother who has been following the developments with Spring Creek, thanked the WCCS for their work. She is moving to the Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood in the fall and was hoping that Spring Creek would reopen so she would have a closer child care option.
"The Whistler Children's Centre are not the bad guys here, and in fact they're doing a fantastic job in the circumstances," she said.
"They are not getting well paid and have had to bear the brunt of people's frustrations because of the long waitlist, but that should really be directed at the federal government. Cuts at the federal level are being felt all the way down."
Pardoe was referring to the $533 million cut in federal funding to B.C. to subsidize day care programs. In place of that money the federal government now provides families $100 per month for children under the age of five, which is less than the cost of two days of daycare.
"That's fine if the parent stays at home, but it doesn't do anything for parents that go back to work," said Pardoe.
"The real issue is the lack of teachers, and I'd like to see more flexibility there from the province. Secondly it's finding space, or finding a way to make the space (at Spring Creek) viable for a daycare."
Councillor Ralph Forsyth has gone to bat for local daycares in recent years, and said he was sad to hear that Spring Creek was not economically feasible.
"Certainly it's disappointing given all the time and effort that went into that building, but the way it was configured there is no way that building could make a profit for the society, much less cover costs," he said. "The (Canadian Home Builders Association) has been great, and they even told us to tell them what to do (at Spring Creek), and they would do it... but the other problem here is that there are not enough teachers, and how people become certified teachers. It's a three or four year program to earn less than a barista at a coffee shop."
Forsyth says it's now up to the municipality to find a use for the building. They RMOW is currently paying any bills and handling the upkeep, and kept the building aside until the WCCS could finalize its plans.
"We know there are groups in town that are looking for space, and maybe they could take it over. We've got to repurpose that building for sure," he said, adding that there will be a meeting next week to discuss options.
However, he said with so many locals moving to Cheakamus Crossing in the future, there is going to be more demand for child care services at the south end of town.
The WCCS waitlist is currently over 100 families long. Roughly 39 families are currently in need of spaces, while another 61 are looking for care in late 2010, 2011 or 2012. Gaudet is encouraging parents to apply while they are still pregnant and before they go on maternity leave to guarantee a place. "If families register tomorrow looking for space ASAP that is impossible," she said.
