The Chilliwack
Progress Friday
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Justice Denied
Staying
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Court delays have some motorists challenging every ticket – and winning.
Roundabouts are here to stay
Former mayor sees missed chance
120 YEARS YOUR COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER
1891-2011
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University students a major retail market UFV talks partnerships Robert Freeman The Progress
Continued: UFV/ p15
Child care provider Kim Olsen plays a memory game with children at Once Upon A Time Child Care Centre in Sardis. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Child care centres struggle to survive Katie Bartel The Progress Kathy Antonio knows first hand the impact of full-day kindergarten on early childhood educators. The director of A Is For Apple Daycare has felt like she’s been living on the edge all year. Since September she’s been losing $300 per child, per day for the seven kindergarten kids in her care that are now attending full-day kindergarten. That’s $6,000 a month; $42,000 to date. “It’s a really scary time to be in the daycare industry,” said Antonio, whose centre is at McCammon elementary, which was one of the first schools in Chilliwack to start full-day kindergarten last September, The B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development
announced last week that it would be allocating $1 million of one-time funding to licensed group child-care providers as a way of easing them through the transition of when full-day kindergarten starts for all public school students in September. Of that, Chilliwack, Agassiz and Hope will be receiving $23,000 to be shared amongst 22 licensed child-care providers. But it’s nowhere near enough, said Antonio, who was allotted $979. “I’m losing $300 per child a day, but wow, they’re giving me a whole $900, how lucky.” When full-day kindergarten was implemented at 14 of the 20 elementary schools in Chilliwack last year, many group child care providers were forced to change the fee rate for kindergarten kids from the top-rated full-time care
DLN 8692
2011 CHEVROLET
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Harry Mertin
45930 Airport Road 604-795-9104
to before- and after-school care. Not only has it strained centres financially, it’s also put a strain on before- and after-school care programs. Once Upon A Time Child Care Centre in Sardis has a year-long wait list for its after-school program. Many of the kids on the wait list have been coming to the centre since they were toddlers. Owner Kim Olsen fears she may have to turn some away. “It’s put huge strains on us,” said Olsen, who was allotted $712 of the grant. “We’re probably going to have to expand.” But with the state of the daycare industry these days, Olsen isn’t so sure expansion is the wisest business choice. In her 20 years as a licensed child-care provider, she said she’s never seen the industry so bad.
Child care centres are closing because of the financial strains and certified, quality staff is becoming harder to find. “You keep plugging along for as long as you can, but at some point it’s just not viable anymore,” said Olsen. The future doesn’t look promising. The B.C. Ministry of Education is actively looking at implementing junior kindergarten options for three- and four-year-olds, which would inevitably drop the child-care rates for that age group, leaving just infants and toddlers in the full-time care rate. But because infant and toddler care require so much more certified staffing it’s not cost effective. If the ministry goes down that route, “I’m going to lose my business,” said Antonio.
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International students at the University of the Fraser Valley are pumping about $32 million a year into the local economy, says UFV president Mark Evered. “That’s a lot of money coming into the businesses of the Fraser Valley,” he said, at a Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce lunch last week. Most of the 800 international students attend classes at UFV’s Abbotsford campus, he said, but programs are being developed that would see more coming to Chilliwack’s new $40-million campus, which will open later this year. “Let’s be frank, these are not poor students,” Evered said, and each spends about $40,000 a year, $13,000 on tuition and the remainder on accommodation, food, clothing, cars and family visits. Evered was talking to the chamber about the unique “partnership” UFV has with Chilliwack, and with each of the communities it serves in the Fraser Valley. The university has a total student population of about 16,000 plus 1,500 staff, making it larger than some B.C. communities, such as Comox, Terrace and Salmon Arm. And these young students form a major market, not only for sales, but as a pool of trained, creative talent for the future. Evered said the training students get in trades or professions at UFV is a “portal to this new world.” “If we get it right, they’ll be building the economy and the businesses here that we can be proud of,” he said.
*HIGHWAY DRIVING. STANDARD SHIFT MODEL.