Your child-care report: Rising costs, waiting lists frustrate parents
Some parents were disappointed. And we heard from you.
YOUR CHILD-CARE REPORT
Former prime minister Paul Martin, who ran for election in 2004 on the promise of universal daycare, also noticed: "A daycare plan would create immediate short-term stimulus and be good for the productivity of the country," he said earlier this month.
We decided to ask Canadian parents, who know this issue best, to share their stories on the status of daycare.
After telling us about the high expense, the ineffectiveness of the "Harper hundred" subsidy and the lack of daycare spaces, some argued that the most urgent issue is that it's the kids who are most affected by the current state of daycare in Canada. Here's a summary of the themes that emerged.
'It's a pittance': $100 per month
Currently, all parents receive $100 a month for each child under the age of six, which is called the Choice in Child-Care Plan. It is considered income and taxed as such.
When the Conservatives won the election in 2006, they announced the benefit would go into effect July 1, and quickly moved to cancel the Liberal daycare plan, which promised $5 billion to create 250,000 daycare spaces by 2009. That plan pointed to Quebec's now $7-a-day daycare plan as a model.
Many of you said that the $100 benefit hardly makes a dent in costs and doesn't help with the lack of daycare spaces. One parent, M., in Toronto says, "While the $100 per kid Harper bonus is a nice extra, it is essentially a baby bonus to offset misc. child-related expenses. It would be a joke to suggest it goes anywhere near the cost of quality child-care." View child-care costs by city.
Another Torontonian, Laurie, agrees: "Harper seems to think a lousy $100 bucks per kid is some kind of solution. It is a pittance compared to the real costs of child care and it does nothing to open [daycare] spots to me."
"'Harper hundred' is nice, but doesn't make a dent in child-care … almost insulting," said Judy, an Ontario mom.
A mom in Vancouver agrees and says she'd be happy to give up the stipend if it meant more spaces. "The $100 monthly stipend is hardly of value to us when we pay the costs we do. I would gladly decline the monthly payment and have it go towards opening and funding new centres. This is the problem in Vancouver."
Joanne, a Montreal parent, reminded the rest of Canada of Quebec's universal daycare system. "Quebec is the only province with a universal access to child-care plan, mostly $7 a day, less if you are on welfare, and though we need more institutions and more places, particularly for children under two, it is the best place in Canada to raise children and send them to daycare."
Costs? What about space!
Many parents told us that the problem is finding quality care, not necessarily cost or subsidies.
"The daycare cost is not the major issue for our family, although it does put a stain on our budget," said SB, a parent in Winnipeg. "The main problem is the daycare space availability. For example, we had to place our child in a substandard private daycare in order for mom to go back to work, or lose her professional career."
"Daycare costs are one issue, licensed space availability is another!" said another Winnipeg parent.
"For us the problem was less the cost and more the lack of availability," a mom in Vancouver told us. "We have been on wait lists for months and heard nothing. We almost had to hire a nanny (which would have placed a real financial strain on us) so that I could go back to work. I am lucky and at the very last minute found something great, but I saw some terrible places, and of those [terrible spaces] many of them didn't even have space!"
"The wait lists are outrageous and I always tell any friends who are having a baby to put their name on the list while they're pregnant to ensure they get a spot when they return to work. It's hard for first-time parents to think that far ahead, but as soon as I found out we were having twins at four months, I put them on several daycare waiting lists," says Marj, a Winnipeg mom.
How parents manage
From selling your house to finding alternative solutions, you told us how you cope with the high costs.
"As it is today, our mortgage is much easier to manage than daycare, which has well surpassed any other monthly fixed cost," says a Vancouver parent. Another mom in Vancouver adds, "In order to manage daycare costs, we recently sold our house and are now renting."
"To cover the costs of daycare our family does without. We do not have satellite TV, rent movies, or any other frills," says a dad from Peterborough, Ont. "We shop the sales for food, etc . In short, we do without, we have no choice; 70 per cent of my income goes to daycare. However, the other 30 per cent is what allows us to heat our home and put food on the table. And yet according to our government, my wife and I make too much money to receive help with the costs."
Others have chosen to try to stay home or get part-time jobs.
One dad from Kitchener, Ont., says, "We planned this out and since returning to work after the birth of our child, my wife has been working part-time, during school hours. She is able to walk our daughter to school every day, and pick her up after school. In this way, we pay no child-care costs at all."
"Even though we receive minimal subsidy, it has had a serious impact on our financial well being ... this is more than our car loan or rent combined ... it was almost not worth going back to work," says Wendy, a mom from Sudbury, Ont.
Another parent in Victoria agrees, but keeps working. "It makes working as a mom hardly worthwhile; just working to keep my job in the workplace."
One Vancouver mom, CC, opted for a live-in caregiver but needs to increase her salary to manage. "We have hired a live-in caregiver who works 40 hours per week. I am operating a professional accounting practice in the home, working full-time. With a full-time caregiver, we need to increase our family income in order to manage the costs of child-care."
The biggest issue? The kids
As a result of cost and lack of spaces, some parents feel that kids are receiving sub-standard care.
"The biggest problem is not the financial cost, but the cost of children's safety. Many parents are putting their children into home daycares that are not registered," says a dad from Moncton, N.B.
"There is much more at stake then our financial woes; because government is not providing enough spaces, parents are placing their children in unregistered daycares, which in at least 30 per cent of cases provide less than adequate care for their children."
"Our frustration comes from the search for a LICENSED spot for our daughter; one was simply not available in our area, regardless of cost or how much we would have been willing to pay….While we have found a private spot that we consider acceptable, a program would provide her with much more opportunity for stimulation and learning, and more peace of mind for her parents that she is thriving all day when we can't be with her," says LG, a Winnipeg mom. "Our kids are not where we would like them to be and we are paying through the nose for it. They are in the only situation available to us. I feel completely helpless and frustrated with daycare in this province and country. I hear of money being provided for "child-care spaces" and I have NO IDEA how that helps me."
An early childhood educator in Kelowna, B.C., adds, "Until our society recognizes the huge importance in the early years and the role of child-care, and child-care professionals plan in the cycle of the future of our nation, it is only going to get harder."