A recent Ipsos Reid survey found that just one in 10 B.C. families find daycare affordable.

While the provincial government offers some daycare subsidies, typically only low-income families are eligible, and so it does little to mitigate the overwhelming financial burden of daycare facing most young B.C. families.

In February 2006, the Conservative government unveiled their new Choice in Child Care Allowance that pays families $100 a month towards child care, but that doesn’t stretch very far in today’s daycare market, where some families pay $45 per day. Last month, the Liberal party, in a release about the state of child care in the country, lamented the “nationwide shortage of affordable child care spaces,” criticizing the Conservatives for failing to add 250,000 new child-care spots as promised three years ago.

But this isn’t time for partisan politics. Canada’s daycare issues cross party lines. As noted by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC), this country ranked dead last in a 2004 OCED report on child care availability and government investment in the developed world – even though daycare costs in Canada were extremely costly. In 2008, according to CCAAC, Canada tied for worst in a UNICEF ranking on child care and support programs for families.

The cost of the daycare crunch? Trained professionals forsaking careers; couples forsaking the idea of having children.

Clearly, the federal and provincial governments must find more ways to subsidize daycare for Canadian families who, given the current economic downturn, need access to affordable child-care more than ever.

— North Shore Outlook