Sunshine Coast Child Care Closures Show NDP’s Failure to Support Families

Gibsons, BC: Reann Gasper, MLA for Abbotsford-Mission and Official Opposition Critic for Child Care and Children and Youth with Support Needs, is calling on the provincial government to act immediately following the YMCA’s announcement that it will close infant and toddler programs in Gibsons and Sechelt, eliminating roughly 20 out of 104 spaces on October 1. Families were given just five weeks’ notice, right as parents are navigating back-to-school schedules and shifting fall routines.

“Parents on the Sunshine Coast found out at the end of summer, during a professional development week, that their child care was being taken away. They were blindsided and left scrambling,” said Gasper. “These closures aren’t a minor inconvenience, they’re an emergency for working families on the Coast.”

Local leaders are now sounding the alarm, left to deal with the fallout of the provincial government’s inability to manage child care. “Once again, the NDP is downloading the crisis onto local governments,” Gasper said.

The NDP promised better. In the February 6, 2023 Throne Speech, it pledged: “A rural community strategy will respond to the unique needs of a growing rural British Columbia. Roads, bridges, and child care centres will be built and maintained in every part of the province to support parents and families that commute to work and want to spend more time at home”

“Instead of building and maintaining centres, rural families are watching their existing spaces shut down,” Gasper said. “It’s another example of how this government over-promises and under-delivers, and it’s families who pay the price.”

“These closures are happening because the government has failed to fix the staffing, housing, and cost of living crises,” Gasper added. “ECEs do some of the most valuable work in our province, yet they are often forced to take second jobs just to afford basic housing and living costs. Families are being failed because government talks about creating new spaces while existing ones collapse. Expanding child care on paper means nothing if there are no educators to staff them.”

“At a time when families should be focusing on a fresh start this September, parents are left wondering where their toddlers will go,” Gasper concluded. “Child care is essential infrastructure, and this government has turned it into a crisis.”

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Media Contact:
Francesca Guetchev, Communications Officer
Francesca.Guetchev@leg.bc.ca
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