Excerpts
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On her first day back at work in August, Lynden, a sign language interpreter, was just settling into work. That’s when she saw an email saying the YMCA will close its infant and toddler care programs at the West Sechelt and Gibsons locations on Oct. 1 due to staffing shortages. The closure cut 16 spots from a region already strapped for child care.
YMCA BC says the closures are the result of the federal government’s cuts to the number of workers who can immigrate to B.C. under its provincial nominee program.
“It was the exact opposite of the day that I was expecting to have,” Lynden said. “I went from the high of feeling like everything is all sorted, to within a moment feeling like everything has crumbled.”
A group of affected parents say the closure has upended their lives and at least a dozen won’t be able to head back to work.
They want the provincial and federal governments to protect the few child-care spaces left by ensuring care workers are compensated enough to live on the Sunshine Coast.
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According to the advocacy organization Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, the Sunshine Coast has only enough spots for 22 per cent of eligible children to access child care.
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The cost of living on the Sunshine Coast is high, with the living wage for the region rising to $26.42 per hour last year, according to Living Wage BC, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Sunshine Coast Foundation.
Child-care workers are paid just above that wage, which is the minimum hourly wage that two full-time adults would need to support the basic expenses of a family of four.
An early childhood educator job posting for the West Sechelt YMCA shows the centre offers $29.20 per hour.
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Many of the workers hired by the YMCA came into Canada through the provincial nominee program, a federal government program that allows provinces to nominate immigrants to address specific labour needs.
In B.C., the provincial government has used the program to address health-care and child-care shortages.
This year, the British Columbia government has a federal allocation of 4,000 nominations through the program. That’s a 50 per cent reduction from 2024′s 8,000 nominations, according to the province.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not respond in time for publication.
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