By Steve Hubrecht
The provincial government’s efforts to make child care more affordable have dramatically backfired in the case of a Radium day care, leaving the operator deeply frustrated.
The Rural Roots Early Learning Centre has been operating in Radium for nearly two years, and was in Wilmer for nine months before that. Centre operator Katherine Bonell has been trying for months to get the B.C. government’s Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative for parents of Rural Roots kids. But provincial government officials have been clear with Bonell that they will only do so if she drastically drops her day care fees.
That leaves Bonell with a big problem — dropping her fees as much as the provincial government wants will result in her making a wage that she can’t possibly live on in the Columbia Valley.
Rural Roots charges $73 a day. The province insists that it needs to go down to $47.23 for kids aged three to primary school age, and down to $53.80 for kids 18 months old to 36 months old, if Rural Roots is to join the initiative.
“I don’t know how the government of British Columbia defines coercion, but the forced reduction and then capping of my revenue in order for the parents to access the money they have every right to access on their own without this restriction is coercive,” wrote Bonell in a letter to B.C. Premier David Eby, seeking help.
Rural Roots used to employ three early childhood educators (including Bonell) but two left because they simply couldn’t make ends meet financially in the Columbia Valley, even with Rural Roots charging a daily fee of $73, explained Bonell. As a result she is the sole educator left at the centre.
A spreadsheet Bonell shared with provincial officials outlines the revenue and expenditures of Rural Roots, both with its current fees of $73 per child, and then with the province’s requested lower fees. Currently the centre, which is run on a break-even basis, has monthly revenue of $7,000 and monthly expenditures of $7,000. If Bonell were to lower the fees per child to $47.23 or $53.80 (depending on the child’s age), the monthly revenue would drop to $4,849, creating a monthly deficit of more than $2,100 for the centre.
Since most of the day care’s expenses are fixed — rent, insurance, hydro and phone bills, etc. — the only way to balance the books would be to cut Bonell’s wages by more than 30 per cent from $32 per hour to $19 per hour.
That’s not much more than $2 per hour above minimum wage, and as Bonell points out, it is nowhere near enough to get by on in the Columbia Valley.
In late June Bonell finally got a response to her persistent inquiries from B.C. Deputy Minister of Education and Child Care Christina Zacharuk. In the letter Zacharuk writes that prior to April 2021, child care centres could join the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative with fees set at any level, but that any day cares joining the initiative since then are required to set their fees in line with those charged by other providers offering the same type of care in their region (which Zacharuk termed “the affordability benchmark).”
“This affordability benchmark is set at the 75th and 80th percentiles, rather than at a lower benchmark, such as the median (50th percentile), to recognize the costs associated with establishing a new facility, and other factors that influence operating costs, and to allow providers previously operating outside of the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative with fees in line with most providers in their region to join the program,” wrote Zacharuk. “The benchmark varies across the province to ensure that providers in high-cost regions are subject to higher limits than providers in regions where costs are lower.”
Bonell found Zacharuk’s reply somewhat disingenuous, saying the letter essentially lays blame at the feet of early childhood educators and day care operators rather than with the provincial officials who created the initiative.
The affordability benchmarks Zacharuk mentioned “are arbitrary. They do not reflect the cost of living within the Columbia Valley nor do they reflect the cost of operating a small licensed child care centre in the Village of Radium Hot Springs. The benchmarks set by the province have nothing to do with me as a small business owner,” said Bonell. She stated the initiative is supposed to be a deal between parents and the province and that early childhood educators who can’t run day care at the government-chosen prices are caught in the middle. Or as Bonell put it: “I am just a pawn in the B.C. government’s child care fee reduction smoke and mirror game.”
Earlier in the summer Bonell sought the support of Radium council in her quest to find some wiggle room in the initiative’s restrictions. Council members are very supportive of Bonell, but unfortunately they have precious little leverage over provincial programs such as the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative, explained Radium Mayor Mike Gray.
“We absolutely need to have child care in our community and we want to do everything we can to make it happen,” Gray told the Pioneer. “Their request is, however, a provincial matter. We will make calls on their behalf and see what can be done. Hopefully it can help, but unfortunately there may not be a lot we can do.”
Bonell wants to continue to press officials on the matter, but conceded that “I don’t know who else to turn to.” She expressed frustration that the provincial government doesn’t seem to view early childhood educators in the same light as primary, elementary and secondary school teachers. Early childhood education is not treated with the importance as it deserves, said Bonell, questioning whether or not that may be a result of gender bias.
“I don’t know if this would happen in a male dominated profession,” she said.
