It will take “years” to create sufficient child-care spaces to meet New Westminster’s needs, according to a city report — but city council members say that’s not good enough.
The issue arose at city council’s Monday, Aug. 29 meeting, when council was asked to endorse draft “guiding principles” that will lead the city’s work on child care with School District 40.
The guiding principles are designed to update the city’s existing child-care protocol with the school district, which dates back to 2009.
John Stark, the city’s supervisor of community planning, pointed out the child-care situation in the city has changed considerably since then. For instance, he noted, the province now has $10-a-day child care and is working towards a universal child-care system. On the flip side, the school district is now facing capacity issues it didn’t have in 2009 — issues that have already forced two daycares to be moved out of downtown-area schools.
Stark said the new guiding principles document is designed to help bring the city and school district together to work on a collaborative, long-term strategy for child care.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone took issue with a paragraph in the report that spells out the organizations’ joint commitment to work towards “a universal child-care system that creates adequate, accessible and high-quality child-care spaces.”
The report notes: “It will be an ongoing and long process that will take years to accomplish the creation of sufficient child-care spaces.”
“That doesn’t sound inspirational,” Johnstone said. “To me, that sounds the opposite of the kind of inspirational statement you want to see.”
Johnstone said the language “doesn’t sound as aggressive as perhaps we would have liked.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson agreed.
“Yes, sure, maybe it is probably going to be a long process, but I hope we don’t accept that as our fate,” she said.
Whose mandate is it? City council questions 'shared responsibility'
Henderson questioned some of the language in the new guiding principles, noting the old child-care protocol had stronger language around protection of child-care spaces.
She also questioned a section of the report that called child care a “shared responsibility” between the city and the school district. Henderson said that characterization is “a bit untrue.”
“Absolutely, the city has some levers it can pull to support the development of child-care spaces, and we’ve done that very well,” she said. “But it is, by definition, not part of our mandate, and it is by definition part of the mandate of the board of education.”
Henderson said there is “mutual interest” in the issue and suggested there can be “shared participation,” but not necessarily equally shared responsibility.
Councillors also raised questions about the areas of responsibility outlined in the report. The report suggests the school district will focus primarily on school-age care (ages five to 12) while the city will focus primarily on preschool care (ages zero to five).
“Part of the ministry’s mandate is to include early childhood education in schools, and that means zero to five within schools,” Henderson said. “And I know that we are in a space crunch, and this isn’t a criticism, but I feel a bit uncomfortable, admittedly, with the hard line of age groups presented here.”
The City of New Westminster staff report recommended council endorse the new guiding principles.
Instead, councillors voted in favour of an amendment proposed by Coun. Jaimie McEvoy that suggested council simply refer the report back to staff with the input presented at the meeting.
“I’m just not comfortable with the language of council will ‘endorse,’” McEvoy said.
Stark said all the council feedback will be taken back to the table as discussions continue with the school district.
Stark said the guiding principles are a preliminary step that will ultimately lead to the creation of a child-care strategy with “specific actions and deliverables.”
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📢 SOUND OFF: Has your family been affected by child-care constraints in New West? Whose responsibility should it be to provide and fund new child-care spaces? What would you like to see done? Share your thoughts — send us a letter.
