Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (July 20/01) - Fort Simpson's only day care closed last week.

Waning community support due to ongoing problems with staff, government cuts and deadbeat parents are to blame, say staff and board members.

Manager Troy Bellefontaine says he fired five people who often never bothered showing up for work. Their unreliability compromised child care to the point it was impossible to run a program. Similar staffing issues have been a problem for a few years, he and others said.

"They don't show up. Or sometimes they go have lunch and they don't come back and we're stuck for the rest of the day," Bellefontaine said.

The day care is also having trouble collecting $10,000 worth of fees owed by parents. That shortfall is the same amount owed to creditors.

Melaw could no longer buy food after the Northern Store, owed about $2,000, cut off credit. The day care is also three months behind on its $500 monthly rent to the territorial government.

Another immediate problem is the $6,000 -- plus $150 in weekly penalties -- that Bellefontaine says is owed to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency because Melaw had not been submitting payroll taxes.

He has hopes the centre can re-open but board president Kathleen Gast says that may not happen. She said Melaw has a verbal agreement with a new day care, being set up by the Liidli Kue First Nation, that Melaw would close when that one opens.

Kids' Corner, which has been in the works for three years, has no government funding yet, says Liidli Kue's executive director Jane Cazon. "We're aiming to be open Aug. 20 ... but we're still waiting for the funding," she said.

Kids' Corner also lacks a licence to care for children, according to Anne Keizer, the region's early childhood inspector. Parents meanwhile are scrambling to make babysitting arrangements.

"I desperately need day care and there are no reliable sitters in town," says parent Cathy Nahanni.

Luckily her children are spending the summer with grandparents in B.C., but "they want to come home and I can't find them a sitter."

Nahanni and her husband are at work during the day. She had no problems with the quality of care but parent Sharon Nahanni was often frustrated with the quality. Sometimes, she said, nobody was at the centre when she wanted to drop her son off before work at 8 a.m., and she has been unexpectedly called at noon to pick him up.

"There was no consistency ... I've chewed them out lots."

The fledgling Melaw sustained what could have been its knockout blow from vandals. They broke in two weekends ago and trashed the centre, located in a former residential school.

Keizer, who visited a couple days later for an annual licensing inspection, said she documented recurring problems such as lack of cleanliness.

The new day care is being funded by the federal government while Melaw received its cash from the territorial government. Gast said Melaw's decline started five years ago, when that funding was sliced in half.

"There's just no financial way for Melaw to survive," Gast said.

Kids' Corner, which will have an annual budget of nearly $200,000, plans to pay child-care workers $12 an hour to start plus benefits. Melaw could only afford to pay $9.50, without benefits.

Gast admits Melaw's board fell short, with inexperienced members who had no idea the time commitments needed for important duties like fund-raising.