FILE PHOTO.

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The state of childcare in the Okanagan seems to have reached a crisis point and parents are being put in near-impossible situations.

The lack of daycare spaces as well as the high costs are part of the issue, and while some families are being forced to leave the Okanagan to find childcare, local organizations have hope it's getting better.

“We’re moving in the right direction, we’re seeing more and more childcare spaces open over the last year. The Okanagan had a really large influx of young families move during the pandemic and with that came the need for childcare and the Okanagan was not ready for that, but we are seeing things move in the right direction,” Tim Ropchan, president of Childhood Connections, says.

There are simply not enough spots opened for the number of children that need them, and while the government is trying to open enough spaces, other factors come into play making it a complex issue. Ropchan says there are approximately 1,100 families looking for childcare, calling it a "significant shortage."

Sarah Peterson and her husband moved from Vancouver to Kelowna as they wanted to raise a family away from the big city and in a single-family home.

Fast forward to today, and Peterson has a 12-week-old daughter, she is on nearly 15 waitlists for childcare, most of which have warned her that she would be waiting up to three years. She also has a mortgage and a career she wants to pursue, but with no childcare available here, the only viable solution for the moment is to move back to Vancouver to live with her parents because a daycare spot is being held for her by a friend.

“We don’t really have a choice. I have to go back to work because we can’t afford for me not to go back," Peterson says. "Unfortunately, the maternal leave benefits from EI are pennies on the dollar of what I make when I’m working, so the real only option is for us to rent our house out and go back to Vancouver until we can find something here.

"It certainly is not something I pictured when we uprooted our entire life to come here, and even then I'm lucky to have my parent's place to move into in North Vancouver and have the flexibility with my job to work from wherever I want.

"My husband’s job right now is in the Okanagan and Northern BC so we may even have to give up being together all the time just to find childcare and that is definitely scary to think about. If we move, I would move with my daughter and he would have to stay here for his job and stay with a friend so that we can rent out our house and afford all of this.”

Peterson found out about the childcare situation while talking with other moms from the community, but she truly never thought the situation was that bad.

“There are so many factors to why there’s a shortage: there’s not enough viable space for childcare facilities, finding space in general is such a hard thing to do, you know, with the whole housing crisis, let alone finding a space that is adequate for a childcare facility. It’s hard to find a space unless you’re building from scratch which then takes a long time. The childcare crisis definitely goes hand in hand with the housing crisis.”

Another aspect of the accessibility problem is the lack of early childhood educators because without these educators, it is impossible to open up more spots.

The educators have not always been paid well. In 2018, on average, they were making about $19 an hour which made it tough to attract people. But Ropchan says wages have risen by about $7 an hour since then and they're seen more applicants.

According to Robert Southam, who runs For the Kids Daycare, a simple change in legislation could free up hundreds of spots.

“Provincial legislation needs to change; small tweaks to the legislation in regards to infant-toddler educators and how long they have to be in a program," Southam says. 

"Currently, if we have an infant-toddler program, we basically need an educator in that program the entire time it’s open. A simple change in legislation that would allow an educator to be the supervisor that supervises and manages a few programs while others do other parts of the job would allow us to open up more programs and it would free up hundreds of educators.”

Until then, this accessibility issue results in waitlists with families waiting three years for a spot which is unrealistic for most families, especially those with infants, so they are forced to find other arrangements.

"There’s also a big increase in grandparents and different family members having to step in. With the cost of everything increasing, families have to go back to work so they’re relying on their internal supports," Ropchan says.

“We are seeing an increase of posts on social media of families looking for neighbours, friends or random people to take care of their children which is frightening, not the option we push for, but families are getting desperate, and with such limited options, they do what they can.”

Peterson feels like parents are left in the dark and don’t have many resources.

“As soon as I got pregnant, I started putting my name on the daycare waitlist, but a lot of places won’t put you on a list until you’ve had a baby, yet the wait is still up to three years for an infant spot,” Peterson says. “This is one thing that I have found exceptionally, exceptionally frustrating here."

She says the majority of registered childcare facilities she's called don't answer and when they do she's told there's a waiting list, or that they are no longer adding to their waiting list. From where she’s standing now, it feels to her as it has become an impossible task for a parent to find a spot.

“You don’t necessarily think that you have to plan that far in advance, but most of these places have a three-year wait for an infant spot which is comical because I didn’t know a year before I got pregnant that we were going to be trying... and even if I had planned, most places don’t let you put a name until you’ve had a baby and infant spots are up to the age of three, so how am I supposed to even get a spot?”

Peterson not only finds this situation is letting families down but also women specifically. She says women often are the ones upon whom the responsibility of childcare falls, but now some women are being pulled between their families and their careers, and because the childcare system is not adequate, she and other working women are having to make difficult choices.

“We’re faced with so many challenges in the workplace and this being another wall that we’re up against because we have to choose between work and childcare, it’s a really sad state of the world,” she says.

Peterson hopes to get a spot for her daughter in the next nine months, but she's starting to lose hope.

“Families are deciding between going back to work or staying home and losing substantial income and things are bad for families right now especially with the world being so expensive,” Ropchan says.

Childhood Connections is an organization that supports family in finding appropriate care for children and also provide training and resources for those who provide this care.

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