DAYCARE operators say finding a location to open in the City of North Vancouver has become extraordinarily difficult.
A delegation of daycare owners addressed city council Feb. 6 in front of a packed house of parents and children.
Carolyn Peters of Park Place Daycare said she was forced to hunt for a new location when the owner of her current building, on the 900-block of Marine Drive, decided to redevelop it.
"We have served the area for 16 years and we offer care from newborns to 12 years," she said. "Families can have their children attend the same facility for all of their daycare years," she said. "It has taken us over one year to find a new location for our 140-plus families," she said.
Finding a building of sufficient size that is seismically sound, has adequate fire safety features and outdoor play areas is hard enough, she said. Finding one that her business could afford made it even more of a struggle.
Peters said paying more than $15 per square foot would mean charging more than parents can afford. Most of the locations she looked at cost more like $50 per square foot, she said.
Peters also approached the North Vancouver school district, but none of their unused facilities were appropriate either, often for seismic reasons.
Ultimately Park Place will have to move three kilometres away, to the 1200-block of East Keith Road.
Stephanie Snider, a parent with a child at Park Place, said the loss of more than 100 daycare spaces in the neighbourhood is "a tragedy."
"There are many young families with stories much the same. This has been incredibly frustrating as a parent," she said.
Samantha Johncox and Amy Danks, operators of Sweet Peas Cottage, said their eight-space daycare, based in Danks' home, was fully subscribed from the very beginning. With 30 families on a waitlist, Johncox and Danks are eager to move to a larger location.
"Over the past two years we have explored every avenue in our quest for available space in the hopes of expanding our centre," Johncox said.
"We have approached churches; looked at renting residential or commercial space; we have looked at buying a house. We've even talked to the school board about any available space they may have."
Johncox suggested the city consider its buildings to create more spaces, as well as encouraging developers to incorporate daycare in new buildings.
"Childcare is not babysitting," said Coun. Don Bell. "Unfortunately that's an attitude held by many people. But this is early childhood development and it's critical to development of children."
Bell, a former Liberal MP, called for a national childcare program and obliquely referenced a federal plan that was dropped following the defeat of the Paul Martin government. He also noted that some people were getting onto waiting lists even before they were pregnant in hopes of finding a spot for their child.
"Municipalities are not the level of government to be funding this," he said. "The residential tax base was never designed for this. . . . Social services like this have to be supported at the national level."
Coun. Craig Keating also said that local government simply doesn't have the money to support childcare facilities. But, he said, there are actions the city could take beyond calling for senior government help.
"For many, many years while I was on council and for many years prior, home-based daycare for up to 15 or 20 kids was an outright allowable use under our bylaws. Then we changed that and to my mind, that's created a serious obstacle to the provision of daycare," he said.
In the spring of 2009, a divided city council introduced an array of new requirements before a daycare could open in a residential area. Anyone hoping to open a daycare for more than eight children must develop a parking and traffic mitigation plan to the satisfaction of the city engineer, canvas all of the neighbours within 100 metres for their opinion, and finally come before council to request a business licence.
The bylaws were introduced in response to a long-running feud between a daycare and one of its neighbours.
"I think traffic concerns and noise concerns emanating from childcares in single-family neighbourhoods quite frankly pale in comparison to the desperate need that families in North Vancouver have for childcare," said Keating.
"I've lost that argument before but I'm going to make it again."
Coun. Rod Clark said the 2009 bylaws "have protected our neighbourhoods and there have been successes. Some failures, but successes as well."
On the larger issue, Clark recalled the "gut-wrenching decisions" that he and his ex-wife had faced trying to find care for their two children.
"I think our society needs to rethink a lot of our focuses," he said. "We celebrated the shipbuilding contract awarded to Seaspan - billions and billions of dollars. There's a similar contract in Halifax for warships. Again, billions and billions of dollars. I think we need to divert some of that spending to things exactly like daycare and provision of early childhood education."
Mayor Darrell Mussatto said there was "no doubt that the province has to step up," but said the city had to take some share of the responsibility.
"We have a motion on the books that says as part of the redevelopment at city hall we have a daycare. That hasn't happened, and I take responsibility for some of that. That's not good enough. We have to find places."
Council unanimously passed a Keating-sponsored motion to call on the province to fund daycare, and for the city to study what else it could do to help create new spaces.
