A group of childhood educators want District of Squamish officials to increase headcount limits for daycares in residential areas.
Current municipal zoning regulates childcares in residential areas to have no more than eight children, even though provincial Licensing Childcare Regulations allow up to 16 children, early childhood educator Andrea Zander told council on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
“Right now, everybody knows, there is a childcare crisis in Squamish,” she said. “We have a lot of children under the age of three and a lot of children needing care.”
Zander’s owns Everyday Magic Children’s Center. The facility currently has a waitlist extending into 2016. It’s comprised of not only Squamish families, but children from Britannia Beach as well.
“I have had to deny care to many families,” she said.
The 2011 Squamish Census reported there were approximately 3,000 children in the community between the ages of one day to 12 years. Compounding the issue, last year there were 340 babies born in Squamish and new families are continually moving to the town, Zander said.
In 2013, the Sea to Sky Childcare Resource And Referrals provided 210 childcare referrals to families.
Municipal re-zoning is expensive, and changing a residential use to commercial presents a slew of complications, Zander said. There are currently 98 listed Squamish properties that are zoned for group childcare, she noted. Of those, eight meet childcare licensing requirements, seven are empty lots, one is home to a teardown building and all are priced at $500,000 or more.
“That is not do-able for a childcare facility. Fees would have to be so high parents could not afford it and that is not what we want,” Zander said.
Cities throughout B.C., including West Vancouver, Nanaimo and Victoria, allow for residential childcare facilities to have up to 16 youths. All childcare facilities have to follow provincial regulations, which dictate details such as the ratio of indoor to outdoor space.
Coun. Susan Chapelle motioned that district staff change the municipal regulation then and there. Her initiative was dropped, with council backing a plan calling for a staff report examining the overall issue of childcare in Squamish.
As with any business moving into a residential area, district staff need to examine its impact on neighbourhoods, Coun. Doug Race told The Squamish Chief.
“The neighbourhoods just weren’t designed to do that,” he said.
The provincial government does mandate the size of a daycare’s outdoor space, excluding them from small lot subdivisions, said Race, who at council referred to the topic as a “mother’s issue.”
Childcare services are critical to a healthy economy, Chapelle told The Squamish Chief.
“How do you get people to work if you don’t have childcare?” she questioned.
While some councillors fear added traffic resulting from such a change, Chapelle said neighbourhood childcare centres would promote the community’s walk-ability.
The regulations will likely be changed, she said, but later rather than sooner as a result of council’s deferral of the subject to a staff report.
“Why don’t we just give them the solution?” Chapelle said, adding Squamish’s zoning is a mess.
