February 25, 2024
Vancouver School Board Trustees
1580 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6J 5K9
Sent via email: [email protected]
Dear Trustees,
Open letter re: Support for Motion – Childcare Capital 2024 (Trustee Reddy)
I write you today to share my enthusiastic support for Trustee Jennifer Reddy’s motion to the February 26, 2024 meeting and to urge that you vote in favour of this motion.
Good strides have been made in the last few years toward establishing the universal childcare system that parents and families, communities, unions, educators, and childcare and early childhood education sector workers have long strived for. The BC and federal governments signed their historic B.C. Early Learning and Childcare Agreement in 2021 and as the Member of Parliament for Vancouver East I am proud to have worked to secure this significant investment.
I know too that building this new crucial system of childcare does come with challenges, especially in expanding capacity at the rate needed to successfully ensure that families can access quality affordable childcare. As you are aware, there is already a high demand for childcare spaces and one would expect that the demand will only increase with the implementation of $10/day childcare. The City of Vancouver’s own data shows that the need for licensed full-day group care and licensed school-age care is particularly acute in the Midtown East and South East areas of the city. This finding is supported by many email correspondences I have received from constituents.
One constituent in East Vancouver wrote: “I am writing out of concern for the childcare crisis that is happening in this city. Nowhere that I have worked or lived - within Canada and in the United Kingdom - is experiencing as significant an issue as the city of Vancouver. It is impossible to secure a childcare spot within this city for one, let alone TWO children. The waitlist are years long, meaning you realistically need to have your name on waitlists before you are even trying to conceive! This causes great stress to parents and is a huge financial burden. It truly has made me second guess moving to this city and raising my family.”
Another stated: “I put my child on every daycare waitlist I could find when I was just 12 weeks pregnant however we have still not made any progress and most centres will not give you an update on your status. I have called around over and over. Places such as Mount Pleasant community Center are a lottery system – hundreds of families fighting for 2 or 3 places.”
A grandmother had this to say: “My son and his wife, both work in healthcare and have done so for many
years, initially as Radiation Therapists and now in hospital administration and in creating and now teaching doctors to use the online framework for holding medical information. Before their son was born they
registered for childcare and after he was born, registered with even more. My grandson will be a year old in a few days and they have not been able to find any childcare. I am turning 74, my daughter in laws parents are similar in age and we are going to have to look after this sweet little boy. We are not asking for free daycare, but surely as law abiding, tax paying citizens of Vancouver who work to help improve the lives of others, we deserve a safe place for our grandchild.”
Another parent said: “In addition to being on waitlists since before he was born (over 2 years ago) we sent out 70 emails to daycares last week, we got 2 responses from daycares in north vancouver, one has a disclaimer that the building will not perform well in earthquake (old masonry structure on soft soils) and another that will be $1400 after subsidy applied and we will have to drive our son out of the city of Vancouver everyday for care.... I want a licenced daycare space near where I live to serve my family.”
These families’ stories make it plain how much planned and funded expansion of licensed childcare spaces is needed to meet the needs of families in their own neighbourhoods.
As outlined in Trustee Reddy’s motion, the Vancouver School Board has a unique capacity to initiate action, thanks to having “land and facilities designed to serve children”, and access to Ministry of Education and Child Care childcare capital funding.
Voting in favour of this motion will initiate quick action and allow the Board to access provincial funds and increase childcare spaces quickly, and not only in those areas where new school buildings are in progress or soon planned. This is a critical point, as few such new builds are planned in the “south-east and north-east quadrants of Vancouver where there is currently a significant lack of childcare spaces.” The motion’s focus on modular construction holds a lot of promise since it is quick to build and only requires land, which the Board has; furthermore, it is in alignment with the City of Vancouver’s “recent direction regarding prefabricated (modular) childcare facilities.”
By directing that enquiries into specific School Board locations of possible childcare sites, especially in East Vancouver, be completed as soon as possible, the Board can assure the public that it is willing to act promptly on this very important measure.
Voting today to undertake this work to remedy and relieve the need for childcare facility space would be a deeply welcomed and positive effort to increase childcare spaces by up to 50% in our community.
I sincerely hope you will join me in supporting Trustee Reddy’s motion by voting Yes, and I stand ready to assist Trustees and the school board however I can to make this initiative successful in delivering quality affordable childcare spaces for our constituents.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jenny Kwan
Member of Parliament for Vancouver East
Cc:
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