High demand for daycare

Childcare centres like Kids Connection are in high demand in Penticton.

The centre is a fully-licensed centre available for young children, and the property has ample room for the 22 to 24 children that attend the centre five days a week.

The owner, Tina Bootsma, said the centre has been at-capacity since it opened in 2015. 

While the five-member staff at Kids Connection all meet requirements as child educators, a shortage of trained staff is apparent at many centres, as manager Paige Karolak noted.

"It's hard to find trained staff in the area. At least it's very rare to find an infant toddler educator, or an actual full (early childhood educator)," she said. 

"Myself, I moved from the coast, and there's lots down there. But here, there's not as many."

Bootsma said a licensed daycare needs at least one person with Early Childhood Education training, noting the minimum requirement for staff is to be certified as an early childhood assistant, but getting ECE training takes longer. 

Combine that with the appropriate facilities that are required, and it's no surprise that there aren't more daycare spaces in Penticton despite waitlists that exist.

Part of the demand, Bootsma noted, is to do with more jobs in the area and a thriving economy where most parents are working — resulting in a heightened need for childcare.

Ian Gerbrandt, executive director of the Penticton & District Society for Community Living, said more planning is needed in the industry to face the employee shortage.

"If you don't have a parallel workforce development strategy, you're going to be continuing to have this problem."

As for the demand for spaces, attention was brought to that matter in Penticton on Tuesday.

City staff said Circle of Friends childcare centre, which is allowed to have up to 24 children at a time, has a wait list of 95 kids aged zero to three and 18 kids aged three to five.

City council approved Circle of Friends’ relocation to Wyles Crescent, which would’ve otherwise meant the facility would shut down, as it is being displaced from its current home on Eckhardt Avenue.

Gerbrandt applauded that decision, and hopes a focus continues to be put on the need for kids and families to have daycare space available.

"I know the city is doing their new Official Community Plan, and it would be great to see an emphasis on supporting families with young children," he said.

"I think it's critically important to help kids grow. That's our future work force. But also it's an economic driver — the more we have childcare, the more easy it is for parents to participate in the economic fabric of our community."