ExKiwilass

According to my American friends childcare is not that hard to find across the border.

Yet is is here, and $$$$ too.

Why? I really want to know.

Piff Poff

Same in the UK.

People don't really want to do it? Too many regulations? Dunno???

iaink

Cost of living in Vancouver perhaps?


Dunno, it doesnt seem that hard where I am. Ive no idea if its expensive though. Whats the going rate?

ExKiwilass

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=777422

Don't think it's just a Van thing - the thread above is about Alberta. And I've read similar about Toronto.

I know ECEs are pretty low-paid here ($10 per hour to start). The unionized places pay more but they're, well, unionized so hard to get into.

[rant]It drives me crazy that there's such a disconnect in the culture here. On one hand, most parents work - both of them. On the other, school finishes at 3pm, childcare is hard to find, etc. I have mum friends who are looking for that dream job that finishes at 2:30pm so they could pick kids up from school. Can't find it of course. /[rant]

ExKiwilass

It depends. My kid is older so it's not too bad - we pay around $400 per month for 8 hours a week, give or take. But it's way more for younger preschool kids - anywhere from $800 - $1000 + a month for full time. I'm sure there's cheaper but for the better childcares, that's what you're looking at.

ExKiwilass

Is it? That's somewhat heartening. Why is it in the UK?

iaink

Thats why my wife drives bus... fits in with the kids schedule/ snow days. The money isnt great though considering whats involved if you dont cut corners.

Our shifts at work are arranged so that people can be home for bus dropoff, but its an early start, in fact when I started one of the people here also drove bus as a second job!

iaink

Id have to check with management what we were paying for montessori when #2 was going there on the days between Kindergarden, but I dont think it was that much for the two or three days a week she was attending.

The biggest problem we experienced was finding someone we felt 100% comfortable leaving the kids with, but we lucked out with Inga.

Atlantic Xpat

I think this is universal across Canada. Certainly in these parts daycare spaces are difficult to find, particularly those for under two's. We have our two in an excellent home daycare 5 minutes away from home. $160 per kid, per week. I have a degree of flexibility in my working arrangements so. for example, can leave work early today to pick up the kids at 3ish as the Mrs has a meeting after work so will be later home. The Mrs is a teacher so school holidays and snow days are not so much of a problem.

Steve_

There wouldn't be a demand for immigrants I guess if there were plenty of people available for daycare.

Former Lancastrian

Another way to look at it is if any poster on here was considering looking after children and were qualified then what would your going rate be?
Basically the average minimum wage across Canada is $10 an hour.
We can all agree that looking after kids is slighly more challenging than slinging burgers at Mickey Ds or serving coffee at Timmies.
Is $15 an hour acceptable how about $20 an hour?
Would you consider looking after kids for $10 an hour and if not why is it then acceptable for others to look after your kids at that rate?

ExKiwilass

I agree Lancaster but for a lot of people that's just too much money to pay for childcare, yet they have/want to work. In this country working also means, probably, access to extended health benefits, for instance, all those things that help keep a family relatively secure when the unexpected happens in Canada. The social safety net here is so weak.

There is a disconnect there though. Agreed.

I wish schools went 8-6. Or even 9-6. That would help.

Cookie

Childcare on a one-on-one basis would be rare unless you hire a nanny.There are multiple children in daycare so therefore a much higher hourly income for the care provider. I guess you already knew that though.

ExKiwilass

hmm, the quality of allegedly ECE qualified childcare workers can be notsogood though. IMO that's because the wages are low. (I say "allegedly" because I've heard some ECE-qualified childcare worker horror stories, so clearly the qualification is no guarantee of quality)

iaink

Your math is a little simplistic as most childcare operations are minding several kids at once.

A friend of mine runs a licensed daycare at home, there are insurance and legal considerations and they do everything by the book. They cant have more that 6 kids per carer IIRC, and she charges maybe $25 or 30 per half day per child and could fill the places several times over based on the word of mouth alone. She's in the happy position that she can pick and choose which kids (and parents) she takes too.

In her case they do OK out of running the business, well enough that shes not tempted to return to "real" work.