.
Search
 Email this articleE-mail this story  Discuss this articleWrite letter to editor  Discuss this articleOrder a classified ad  Print this page

Day care a 'money losing' business

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Oct 24/05) - Women's groups and day care operators around the NWT say government support is inadequate.

In Fort Smith, Rainbow Child Care and Development Centre will shut down on Oct. 28, closing 25 spaces.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Here are some stats about the soon-to-close Rainbow Child Care and Development Centre in Fort Smith:

  • $285,000 budget
  • parent fees totalled $89,000 in 2004
  • fees for parents range from $350 to $650 per month
  • close to $30,000 required to settle outstanding accounts
  • 25 spaces
  • 27 registered children
  • 18 children are dependents of Aurora College students
  • six full or part-time childcare workers, plus a janitor


  • The Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation-owned Tinkering Tots Daycare is getting by, says program manager Chris Clarke.

    However, he says government subsidies based on attendance create problems.

    "If the attendance is lower, they claw back the money," he says.

    "They need to fund on how many spaces you have."

    Clarke says no matter how many children show up, a day care still has to pay staff and operate a building.

    The Lutsel K'e day care, which has 14 children registered and employs two full-time and four part-time staff, collects $20-a-day from parents.

    The day care, which has an annual budget of about $160,000, also gets $50,000 in support from the band office through the federal Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy.

    Clarke says the day care would never be able to survive on GNWT subsidies and parent fees.

    Rainbow Child Care president Aimee Clarke says her group's government subsidy is capped at $25,000 a year. It gets $12 per day for an infant and $2 per day for after-school children.

    Funding is tied to the number of children attending the facility.

    This isn't the first day care to close blaming government funding policies.

    The Yellowknife YWCA once ran five community day cares and a program for young mothers at St. Patrick high school.

    "The government policies really drove us out of day cares," says Lyda Fuller, the organization's executive director.

    The high school program was the last to close in 1998, she says. "We ran the daycare at St. Pat's for three years and could not make ends meet."

    There was an $80,000 gap between revenues and expenses, even though the school provided space.

    Fuller says there were two main problems - small subsidies and difficulty getting payments from Income Support to help students pay fees.

    When all five were in operation, the YWCA was losing over $100,000 a year. "That's a lot to ask of a non-profit charity."

    Gerri Sharpe-Staples, the president of the Status of Women Council of the NWT, says the situation at the Fort Smith day care is not unique.

    "The way government funds day cares is no where near adequate," she says.

    Education, Culture and Employment Minister Charles Dent recognizes more money would be useful for NWT day cares.

    "All operators tell me they need more help," he says.

    However, Dent says the government only has so much money to put into the program.

    "It's not like I'm sitting on a pot of money that's not doing anything," he says.

    The minister notes $1.445 million in subsidies goes to day cares each year, while $1.042 million in subsidies goes to low-income parents to help them pay child care fees.

    Last week, he was at an Ottawa meeting of provincial and territorial ministers with federal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden.

    Dent says the provinces supported the territories' argument that federal funding for the North under Ottawa's $5 billion, five-year child care and early education fund should not be per-capita based.

    The NWT would have received per-capita funding of $940,000 this year. It is holding out for that plus $2 million each year.

    Some of that money would be used to support day cares.