Daycare providers are not sure how many children they'll be able to allow in their facility under social-distancing practices (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

DAYCARES REOPENING

Kamloops daycares unsure of what reopening means for regular families, essential workers

May 8, 2020 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — With plans in place for the B.C. economy to slowly reopen in the next couple weeks, parents who are needing to return to work are reaching out to their daycare providers.

While some daycares have been closed during the pandemic, others in Kamloops ave remained open to care for children of essential service workers.

The Boys and Girls Club of Kamloops has one of the daycares to stay open, taking care of 30 children of frontline workers. But the phonecalls have been coming in from parents who are now going back to work and need childcare immediately.

“We know as soon as the announcement came [on Wednesday], the next day we had lots of calls about kids coming back to their regular spots, whereas we’ve already [taken in] a lot of new families of essential service workers. So we’re sort of left juggling,” said executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Kamloops Traci Anderson.

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The dilemma for places like the Boys and Girls Club is, who stays and who goes? Does the club honour their regular families or still give priority to essential workers?

“We’ve assured all of our regular families that we’re open and that they can come back whenever they can, so it’s going to be a little bit of juggling,” said Anderson. “I feel like we’re in a little bit of limbo. It’s going to take time to sort this out and figure it out.”

According to the Kamloops Child Care Resource and Referral program, 75 daycares in Kamloops are open, caring for 629 children of essential workers. The city already struggles with child care with only 1,360 spaces for kids five years old and younger, and 5,420 children in Kamloops needing care.

With social distancing measures, however, there will be even fewer spaces available. More staff will also be needed, an extra costs for daycare providers.

Patti Pernitsky, who runs an out-of-school program at the Kamloops United Church downtown, says a lot of facilities are struggling financially during this time and need more government help.

“We ourselves are a non-profit and when you only have two or three children in attendance, do the math. That’s not a lot of income,” she said. “I’m waiting now to hear… I applied for the one federal government grant to help us.”

Pernitsky is waiting for the government to outline specifically how many children can be at her daycare at one time.

“I know they’re saying it’s six for family members that are allowed to be together within a space,” said Pernitsky. “We have three staff, so there’s three, and right now we have three children today, so there’s your six.”

She doesn’t anticipate all 20 of her children to return once there’s an official reopening date. But daycares, like many businesses around B.C., are needing more guidance from government before they can move ahead.