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A Canada that works for all generations? The UBC Child Care Parent Council received an email in October 2011 from Paul Kershaw and Lynell Anderson of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) group at UBC, about a new series of provincial reports and a national summary about whether Canada works for all generations. These are posted on a website called "A Canada that Works for All Generations." Link: http://blogs.ubc.ca/newdealforfamilies/ The email states, in part: "The majority of the reports describe the decline in the standard of living for the generation raising young kids today compared to the mid-1970s, and they monitor public policy responses to this decline in all provinces across Canada in relation to other OECD countries. Because the monitoring finds that Canadian provinces fall behind other jurisdictions, we propose a suite of policy changes that we label a New Deal for Families. We then measure the gap between the status quo and the New Deal in each province, and show in detail what the New Deal policy changes would mean for various families in each province: one earner couples; dual-earner couples and lone-parents. The policy recommendations focus on facilitating more time at home for dads and moms supported by healthy child check-ins and parenting supports, $10/day high quality child care services, and financial supports for low-income families. These recommendations build on the Time, Services and Resources Framework we proposed in our 2009 family policy benefit/cost analysis for BC (link: earlylearning.ubc.ca/media/uploads/publications/15by15-full-report.pdf). We have subsequently expanded the benefit/cost analysis across the country, with highlights of this work summarized very briefly near the end of each report." Please see http://blogs.ubc.ca/newdealforfamilies/ for the reports. Childcare is the Biggest Job Creator A new study provides evidence that child care sector is the biggest job creator and provides one of the highest GDP impacts of all major sectors in Canada. In an open letter to all Members of Parliament the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada calls on the government to provide policy and funding leadership so that all parents have access to affordable high quality early childhood education and care services. The UBC Parent Daycare Council has endorsed this letter and it can be read on the association's website. The UBC Parent Daycare Coucil has also sent this letter to Education and Early Learning and Literacy Minister Margaret Macdiarmid The waitlist for UBC daycare has grown to more than 1500 children. The rate of applications to the waiting list has increased significantly over the past three years. Average wait times have increased correspondingly (currently between 2 and 3 years), and will likely continue to lengthen unless action is taken. The Politics and Economics of Childcare Despite media coverage saying otherwise, there is NO national childcare plan in Canada for children under 5. It is the responsibility of every province to create and fund a childcare system. Funding in BC is minimal and does not adequately cover operating costs; parent fees are the primary source of revenue. UBC Childcare Services is an ancillary, employer-run daycare. UBC subsidizes each daycare space. The waitlist is currently over two years and growing rapidly for a number of reasons, including the lack of licensed daycare spots in Vancouver (particularly for children under 3), new residential developments on campus, and recent hiring of large numbers of new, young faculty members. The Provincal government is predicted to reduce subsidies for some low-income parents (such as students) raising the cost of daycare beyond affordable levels. HOW UBC CHILDCARE IS CURRENTLY FUNDED UBC Daycare 2006 budget of $3.17M is broken down in the figure below.
UBC's subsidy in 2006 was about $1800 / space, annually, plus rent-free occupancy of our buildings. The average full-time fee varies; for example, $8,280 for 3-5 spots and $11,280 for toddlers. This includes an critical 'agegroup cross subsidy' component, in that income from 3-5 spots is used to help support the extremely expensive infant center, and (to a lesser extent) toddler spots. How much would a UBC spot cost without the UBC subsidy and age group cross-subsidy? "Cost recovery" prices for 2006 would have been (per month):
Will these rates continue in the future? As of January 2007, they went up. This is a direct result of the provincial cuts (a reduction in the 17% of the pie shown above). FRUSTRATED AT THE LONG WAIT LIST? CONCERNED ABOUT DAYCARE FEES?
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