Vancouver mother ‘desperate’ for childcare: ‘We’re not talking about a luxury’

A Vancouver mother says her family is becoming increasingly desperate to find daycare for their baby as her maternity leave is set to expire this summer.

Luiza Salazar and her husband are originally from Brazil but have lived in Vancouver for the past 12 years. Last August, they welcomed their first child.

Once they had their daughter, Salazar says she decided to look into finding childcare for when she returns to work. She says she signed up for dozens of daycare centres, virtually all of which have wait times of up to three years. Others told her they weren’t able to accept new applications at all.

“This isn’t really a problem where we’re from so I guess it never really crossed our minds that we’d have to look for daycares while we were pregnant,” Salazar told CityNews.

“You’re basically getting to the point where your child doesn’t need daycare anymore, then you get a spot, which is absolutely insane to me.”

The new mother’s original plan was to take six months of maternity leave and then return to work. Once she realized the predicament she and her family were in, she extended her leave for a full year, which is set to end in July.

“It seems very basic because it’s children, we’re not talking about a luxury,” she said.

She says her family is running out of options.

“We might go to an unlicenced centre or a place that doesn’t have really good reviews or something that doesn’t feel quite right because you literally have no option,” she said.

‘The decision shouldn’t be made for you’

The ordeal has left Salazar with a sour taste in her mouth, saying she feels like she’s being forced not to work and become a stay-at-home mother.

“I think it should be a choice, ultimately. You should have the right to say, ‘I want to stay with my daughter at home’ […] or ‘I want to be in the workforce.’ The decision shouldn’t be made for you for something as basic as lack of childcare,” she said.

“I think a lot of women are being forced to abandon their careers.”

Additionally, she says she does not have many extended family or friends in Vancouver who could help out with childcare. It’s something she’s heard is common in Vancouver, where many residents are immigrants or not originally from the city.

“We’re missing the ‘village’ in ‘it takes a village to raise a child’,” she noted.

While she acknowledges that she and her husband are in decent financial standing and could weather the storm if she’s not able to work, she recognizes that her situation is rare.

“I don’t know many couples who can be a single-income family in Vancouver, especially with a child,” she said.

Gaps remain in B.C.’s childcare system, advocate says

Salazar’s situation is something that many parents in B.C. appear to be facing.

Despite investments into childcare recently announced as part of both the provincial and federal budgets, there is still more that can be done, according to Sharon Gregson with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C.

She says while there have been moves made to offer more daycare spaces, there’s still another issue that needs to be addressed.

“There’s no sense in expanding spaces if there’s nobody to work in them. So, simultaneously, there must be an investment in a fair wage grade for educators across the province,” she told CityNews.

Last year, the B.C. government announced a $4 per hour wage increase for early childhood educators. Gregson says that raise isn’t good enough.

“The wage enhancement the government is providing, which is $4 an hour, it still leaves educators poorly paid,” she explained.

While the lack of childcare is being felt nationwide, Gregson says there is better progress being made in other provinces.

“They’re moving faster to implement a wage grid, they’re planning their space expansion better. So we really have to make sure that B.C. catches up,” she said.

But for Salazar, she’s anxious about what’s going to happen this summer.

“I think it’s beyond frustration. I think it’s desperation at this point,” she said.