The Editor,
Re. “SD43 and cities teaming up to fight daycare crunch” (The Tri-City News, Sept. 21).
I am pleased that School District 43 and the cities want to help with this problem.
But I run a family daycare in Port Coquitlam and currently have two spaces open, and so do many other people, both family and group centres. I grant you that some areas are better served than others but there are a lot of very good licensed people available with room to care for children.
Most of the people I have run into need care outside of regular hours/days, or have rotating shifts, which makes their cases difficult — parents with special needs children especially.
The provincial government has made some attempts to help out financially but this help only works for kids up to three years old. I think more needs to be done with the resources we already have than opening up more spaces.
Just look on the Fraser Health Childcare Map, DaycareBear, GoDaycare, even Craigslist, and it becomes obvious there are lots of spaces open. I believe the schools have enough on their plates these days already; the only daycare at schools should be for school-age kids.
Some people I know are dangerously close to losing their family daycares because they don’t have enough children enrolled to cover their rent.
This will be a big problem if these places close and those families lose what they already have. Help find a way to help those of us who are already doing this job, help the families that need the care for their little ones.
S. Burke, Port Coquitlam
