Cuts may force care closures

Cuts may force care closures
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Dec. 22, 2002

Six different child-care programs operated by one of the city's best known social service agencies are in danger of being shut down because of an unexpected provincial budget cut announced last week.
And unless a nearly $400,000 funding shortfall is made up through pay cuts for the child-care workers and/or increased fees to parents, a total of 120 families could lose their day care.
"If this goes ahead we'll have no choice except to shut everything down," said Jack Styan, executive director of the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion. "And if we close, we lose the second largest child-care provider in Burnaby."
The impending closure comes because the provincial government has decided not to continue paying union rates to the BACI child-care employees after their current negotiated agreement expires next spring.
"We found out in late October they weren't going to fund our collective agreement, and at that point they said 'don't worry,' they were just taking three streams of money and rolling it into one," Styan said Wednesday afternoon.
But last week, when the province announced the new child-care funding plan - a proposal is supposed to create an additional 25,000 child-care spaces in British Columbia - they gave BACI a funding cut of $386,000.
"They're giving the same amount per space, per child across the province, irrespective of the agency," Styan said. "That poses a very significant problem for us, because our collective agreement remains in force after March 31."
Styan said BACI is being treated differently than other child care operators because their employees are unionized. (The society, formerly the Burnaby Association for the Mentally Handicapped, is best known for its work with people with developmental disabilities.)
During the last round of negotiations, the province and BACI agreed to pay its day care workers the same union rates as the society's other employees - about $16.83 per hour - under a deal known as the 'Monroe agreement.'
Styan said other 'stand-alone' child care operators in Burnaby, such as at Simon Fraser University or the B.C. Hydro Hanna Court operations, were told that their funding was not guaranteed after the current union contracts expired, so they had bridging provisions built into their collective agreements.
But not for BACI.
"As a small community association, we're left holding the bag," Styan said. "We have no option except to close our doors."
But a spokesperson for the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services said the funding cut is an attempt to create a level playing field for all child care operators in the province.
"This government could not continue to maintain the Monroe agreement that was set up by the previous government," said Deborah Bowman, the ministry's assistant director of communications in Victoria. "Unfortunately, it does impact 39 agencies in the province and this organization (BACI) is one of them.
"We understand it is difficult for them, but this whole funding arrangement was not sustainable," she said. "The changes to child care are to make it more equitable, balanced and fair for all the child care organizations across the province."
She noted that the Nov. 27 announcement guaranteed funding for 4,500 day care operators around the province. Of those, 1,400 will receive government funding for the first time, about 600 will get increases, while 39 organizations, including BACI, get cuts.
Bowman also said she could not explain why Styan and other BACI administrators were told not to worry about the possible changes until last week.
"I can't comment on that," she said. "My understanding is that the 39 agencies were all aware of this. I don't know who told them not to worry about that."
Meanwhile, Stacey Kessler is one of about 50 BACI day care employees who face a job loss or pay cut of almost 30 per cent because of the impending change.
"It's pretty scary because everything is so uncertain," said Kessler, an early childhood educator who works at the Variety Hotelier House Children's Centre. "It kind of tells us that our government doesn't value children or families very much."
Kessler, who has worked for BACI for eight years, said the union pay rates are simply fair wages for skilled work.
"At a non-union shop there will be no sick time for employees, fewer people to care for the children, no benefits and significantly lower wages. It's hard to work like that and raise a family," said Kessler, who has a two-year-old child.
"But I do love this job," she adds. "It's fun working with kids and their families, educating them for life and later on. It's an important job."
Her views are shared by Jas Sidhu, the manager of child care services for BACI.
Sidhu said most of her employees have at least two years of training in early childhood education before starting work, and that the pay cut at BACI will simply allow the government open up more non-unionized child care spaces.
"The government says they're expanding space, but what they're doing is taking money from the unionized sites, and divvying it up elsewhere."