BCIT shuts down day care

By Dan Hilborn
Published Feb. 21, 2004


A decision to permanently close the only child-care facility at the Burnaby campus of the B.C. Institute of Technology is raising the ire of the affected parents and the institute's student association.

"Last Monday we found out the roof was leaking, and then on Tuesday they announced they were shutting it down forever," said Holly Friesen, a BCIT student whose three-year-old daughter is one of 25 children in the facility.

"We had a meeting with president Tony Knowles, and the reason he kept saying over and over again was that it was about liability and costs. It doesn't make any sense," Friesen said. "He doesn't even like the idea of the student association going for outside funding sources to rebuild the centre."

Michael Becker, media relations manager for BCIT, said the child- care facility is closing because the two portables that house the program have been deemed unsuitable for occupation it would cost too much to rebuild them and providing child care is not one of the 'core services' offered by the post-secondary institution.

"It came down to a board decision," Becker said Monday afternoon. "The basic rationale was the poor condition of the facility and their wish not to take dollars out of the education budget to provide day care."

Parents with children currently enrolled in the centre will be able to keep their children in care for the rest of this semester thanks to an agreement to move the facility onto space at the nearby Willingdon Church property.

While the centre is set to close completely at the end of June, the parents and student association have successfully convinced the BCIT board of governors to revisit the issue when they hold their next board meeting in late March.

The child-care centre is operated by the BCIT Student Association, although BCIT has assisted the centre with a $20,000 annual grant, which covered the costs of leasing and maintaining the now-closed, 14-year-old portables that housed the centre.

Students with children in the centre paid $800 per month for the child care, while five spaces were reserved for BCIT faculty members, who paid $115 per month for the service.

Caroline Gagnon, a director of the student association, called the decision to close the centre "regressive."

"We will become the only institution without a day care on campus, while other places such as SFU and UBC have six and 11 day cares," Gagnon said.

This is a major concern because for the 20 student who use that service, it might mean that they will have to drop out of school," Gagnon said. "I believe eliminating the service is regressive. When a single mother or single father is not allowed to continue their education to better themselves, I think that's sad. It's sad not to offer this service on campus."

Gagnon also noted that the two portable buildings that housed the child care centre were only intended to be in place for two years before BCIT replaced them with a more permanent structure, and the student association has been working on a strategic plan to try to make that permanent facility a reality.

And Friesen is upset by the fact that she'll have to find an alternative child care centre for her daughter. "My daughter has ben in there since September, and she supposed to be there for at least another year. Yes, I can go and look for another daycare, but that's not the point."

The student association is currently organizing a petition to keep the child care centre open, which they intend to present to the institution's board of governors at their next meeting.