Looking for Child Care in Greater Victoria

It can be a challenge to find child care in Greater Victoria. If you’re a military family, you also have to find care of the matches the lifestyle requirements. Lisa Yates and Erin Holler from the Child Care Resource and Referral talk about where to start and their perspective on this challenging issue.
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Special Guests
Lisa Yates and Erin Holler work with the Child Care Resource and Referral. They have one office in Victoria and one serving Sooke and the West Shore.
Highlights
- Licensed group, licensed family and registered licensed not required.
- 4:03 The state of waitlists in Greater Victoria.
- Need to sign up well in advance.
- Know the temperament of your child and find a fit.
- Need to followup with daycares.
- Need to be creative if you need care with early openings, late closings, evening care.
- 14:22 What you need to be a child care provider in your home.
- The cost of child care plus ways to bring down the cost.
- 23:07 Recommendations to military families in the area.
Quotes
“Be open to trying different type of care. Visit a lot of different places and you’ll know it when you when you get there, it’ll feel right for you.”
– Erin Holler, Child Care Resource and Referral
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Thank you
- This podcast is made possible by funding from True Patriot Love Foundation.
- Thank you to Organized Sound Productions for their help bringing this podcast to life.
Transcript by Otter.ai
Intro
This podcast is made possible by funding from True Patriot Love Foundation.
Erin
Licensed group care maybe what you as a parent are wanting, but maybe extremely overwhelming for your child if they’re very anxious or shy in large groups. So really know the temperament of your child first, then move on to the different types of care and because your child may be exhibiting signs of anxiety and you think it’s the care provider, when really It’s the environment.
Intro
The military lifestyle is all encompassing. It’s difficult, but rewarding. Dynamic, very, very dynamic. Unpredictable. You are in the Canadian Armed Forces, or a family member connected to the military. You know the lifestyle can be a challenge. The military lifestyle is always changing. In this podcast, we explore the world of deployments, postings, and transition. This is The Military Lifestyle. Here’s your host, Jon Chabun.
Jon
It can be a challenge to find childcare in Greater Victoria. If you’re a military family, you also have to find care of the matches the lifestyle requirements. I talk with Lisa Yates and Erin Holler from the Child Care Resource and Referral about where to start and their perspective on this issue.
So we’re here talking about childcare, looking for childcare in Greater Victoria. I have two guests today, Lisa Yates, and Erin Holler. Welcome to The Military Lifestyle.
Erin
Thank you.
Lisa Y
Thank you.
Jon
So going right into it. How do you go about finding childcare nowadays here in Victoria?
Lisa Y
Well, the Victoria Child Care Resource and Referral program is a free service to all families in the Greater Victoria area and we cover from View Royal south towards downtown. And then we cover out towards Sidney and the Gulf islands. So we’re funded through the Ministry for Children and Families and it’s free for parents to contact us either through our website or by phone, or they can visit us in the office. And we’re at 2001-Unit A Douglas Street. And we’re open Monday to Friday from 8 till 4, except for Wednesdays, we’re open noon till 7. So families that work during the day are able to come in to see us in the evenings.
Jon
And yet the website is fabulous. I used it myself. I typed in my little criteria of what I was looking for and it popped up this little report that it sent me and it gave me a few options to start with. It was an amazing resource and I didn’t even contact a single person there.
Erin
That’s fantastic. In the Sooke and West Shore area, it would be a phone call to either our West Shore number or our Sooke office and/or an email. You can find us on the website as well. And we have consultants in the office Monday through Friday 8:30 to 4:30.
Jon
So would you say that the CCRR is a good place to start if you’re looking for care? That’s kind of your stop number one?
Lisa Y
Absolutely.
Jon
What are the different types of care that you can get? I know there’s the licensed and unlicensed and when I was looking, I was I don’t know, I was a little scared of unlicensed I probably stuck more to the licensed.
Erin
On our referral list, whether you’re Sooke West Shore or in Victoria, there are three types of care that we would refer you to and that is the licensed group, licensed family, or registered licensed not required. So the one the license group in licensed family are overseen by Child Care Licensing officers and the registered licensed not required are taken care of by the consultants with Child Care Resource and Referral. And so we’re the ones that go into the home and do inspections and such.
Jon
What is the state of waitlists in Victoria? Do you have like an idea? If we have a like a military family member who’s looking for care in the area? Can you give them like an average time or an idea of like, when to start registering for childcare? I guess the sooner the better. Is that how it works?
Erin
The sooner, the better. It really varies based on type of care and the age of your child that you’re looking for care for as to what a waitlist might look like. So really, you would have to contact each individual care provider to see what their waitlist looks like and what the procedure is to register to be on that waitlist.
Jon
I know that with our MFRC. We have we’ve got a daycare located in Colwood and I was talking to the Children’s Services Coordinator there. So what are people looking at? And she said that they’re looking at a minimum 18 months on the waitlist, and sometimes as long as three years, which that blows my mind. So if you were, let’s say, moving here from another part of the country, you might actually have to anticipate you’re posting message and maybe sign up the year before you actually get your posting message before you sign up with our daycare, which, again, strikes me is a little bit insane. If you live here in the area, you might want to sign up before you actually even …
Erin
had the baby. (Laughs)
Jon
That that strikes me is insane as well.
Lisa Y
Definitely times where we’ll get a call from somebody who’s just left the doctor’s office and found out they’re pregnant, to get a list for childcare and get their name on that waitlist as soon as possible.
Jon
Have you heard from families that there’s the struggle still here?
Lisa Y
There’s still a struggle, like I said, from our program from View Royal towards the Gulf Islands in licensed group childcare settings, which is probably the most popular type of care out there, because they’re fully qualified with their early childhood education certificate as well as somebody is on site with infant toddlers, which is an additional year of education. And it’s a smaller ratio. So it’s a four to one ratio. They have long waitlist, some, like you discovered can have a year to 18 months to two years to three years of a waitlist. So somebody who is looking for care and needs care as soon as possible. They’re not going to get it in a licensed group center.
Jon
Yeah, the 12 to 18 months range is definitely your if your child was that age, and you’re looking for care, or even 18 months and a younger.
Lisa Y
Under three
Jon
Under three? Oh, my gosh. So under 18 months, it’s gonna be really difficult. From 18 months to three years it could be mildly difficult and then it gets better from three to five. Is that it?
Lisa Y
It does.
Erin
The licensing regulations around adult to child ratio changes based on the ages of the children. So the older they get, the less adult required.
Jon
Yes, yeah.
Erin
In the West Shore and Sooke, there isn’t as big a crisis, you don’t have to be putting your name on waitlist before you even contemplate conceiving a child. But within a month or two after your child is born, if you are really set on having group childcare, absolutely, you would want to do it within a couple of months. The other types of care, the licensed family and registered license not required, your chances are much better at getting a spot earlier.
Jon
Right. What are some things that people should be looking for when they’re looking at daycare of I’m thinking of things like what are some positive signs of a daycare and what are some red flags that might exist if you’re looking for care?
Erin
First and foremost, what I tell parents when they’re looking for childcare in the first place is to know the temperament of your child. Because licensed group care, maybe what you as a parent are wanting, but maybe extremely overwhelming for your child if they’re very anxious or shy in large groups. So really know the temperament of your child first, then move on to the different types of care and, and because your child may be exhibiting signs of anxiety, and you think it’s the care provider, when really is the environment. So you have to know the temperament of your child first is what I would say.
Lisa Y
I think it’s definitely good to look at all three forms of care, just to see which one you think might be best suited to your child. But as Erin said, it also does. It’s good to know what the temperament of your child is. So if you have the opportunity to visit each type of facility with your child, I think that can help. There are more spaces and licensed family daycare then there are in groups so when it comes to waitlist family daycares may not tend to take a waitlist. So it’s easier to put your name if they have one to put your name on the waitlist. But oftentimes, they may not know that far in advance that they’re going to have a space available.
Erin
Yeah, if a lot of parents like to be able to drop into their daycare unannounced. And so if your care provider is wholeheartedly against that, then you might question why. And that would be a question you would ask them, because maybe it’s as simple as you don’t want parents dropping in during nap time or those really hard transition times. So it might not be a red flag, but just open a conversation with the care provider about why they have that policy.
Jon
When it comes to waitlist. I’m curious, how do you stay on a waitlist and how do you know that you’re on it? When I signed up for daycare for my child. Geez, I don’t know. I think I signed up for maybe half a dozen places and I’ve been offered spaces in three of those daycares and my child’s now four years old. I don’t know, I don’t know what happened with the other three places.
Lisa Y
So people will put their name on a waitlist, and sometimes just automatically think that they’ll have a space available. But that’s not the case. So a waitlist can vary amongst each type of facility and each type of program. If you do have your name on a waitlist, it’s good to contact them frequently to see where you are on the waitlist. And it shows that you’re interested in that site. So a lot of waitlist can be long, but I find I used to work in a group center and that was part of my job, I would contact those people on a waitlist. So I was always interested in the people that contacted me, because I knew that they were interested in a space.
Jon
So you just need to be proactive constantly contacting them.
Erin
Absolutely set a date on your calendar. And that’s your day that you call all the daycares that you put your name on a waitlist for.
Jon
And maybe maybe I stopped caring because I got a spot in a daycare. And we’re still in the same place that we originally said yes to. So it worked out for me. So I’m not a complete moron. I hope people don’t think that. But I would have followed up with those places. But it was funny where sometimes I’d be following up with places and they would say, oh, no, you’re not on the waitlist. And I was like, no, I’m on the waitlist. I’m on the waitlist. And then they’re like, oh, yes, you are on the waitlist. Sorry. We’re looking in a different spot. So I just thought, in terms of my confidence of like, I’ve I actually on the waitlist. Yeah. so.
Lisa Y
There are cases where say you need care to start in June, but that facility will call you in April, because they have a space in April knowing that they won’t have the space in June. So are you interested in taking that space in April so you actually get that spot whether you put your child in at that time, but you’re paying for that spot from April till June.
Erin
Follow up with email too if you can, and that way you do have kind of a trackable conversation.
Jon
The paper trail.
Erin
The paper trail, absolutely, of being on the waitlist or not.
Jon
This is great advice now that I’ve already gone through the process. But are there options for the military lifestyle to kind of accommodate that? I know that I’m thinking of things like early drop offs, late pickups, evenings, overnights, weekends. One example I have was a military member came up to me and was asking me about daycare. His partner was a nurse and worked shifts 7 to 7 or something like that. And yeah, how do you move go about trying to find care to find those awkward shifts and to accommodate things like that.
Erin
That’s the unicorn of daycare right there.
Jon
The unicorn?
Erin
It just …
Jon
Doesn’t exist?
Lisa Y
It’s definitely difficult
Erin
Very difficult to find those late evenings or weekends in licensed care. That’s a very difficult scenario to try and find for sure. And especially if you’ve moved out to the Sooke or West Shore, because your commute time is that much longer already to get into town and then back out to Sooke or the West Shore, it’ll be very difficult to find that type of care, you may need multiple care providers for that kind of a scenario.
Jon
Right? So you just need to be creative, right? And maybe tap into whatever you can get. It might just be you might have a solution, but you might also have a second one to kind of fill the gap.
Lisa Y
It definitely is difficult with the Victoria Child Care Resource and Referral program. We can do specific search for early opening or late closing, we can do a search for evening care, or weekend care but there isn’t anybody that offers overnight care. It’s very hard to get a license for overnight care. So as Erin had said you may find that in informal care, somebody who’s not licensed or friend or something to offer that type of care, but it’s difficult to find.
Jon
And what does someone have to do to become a childcare provider? Is there sometimes it’s nowadays it seems like people will be like, hey, I got a kid, come on over. Is that it?
Erin
It depends on what kind of childcare provider you would like to be. To do daycare in your home, the law in British Columbia is that you can care for two children in addition to your own without any license or or being registered. But if you want that extra support, if you want more than two children in your care, then you would have to become a licensed family daycare provider. If you’re only looking for a couple of kids to you know, have some playdate time with your own children that you have at home. Then you could become registered and you would contact either Victoria CCRR or the Sooke West Shore and we would help you through the process to become registered.
Lisa Y
Although with a licensed family daycare, it’s not our mandate to follow up with that. So they would have to contact the Island Health Authority. And if they’re licensed, they can take up to seven children in their home. And if they have children of their own under 12 years, they’re included in that seven. So there is age breakdowns within the seven. So they can’t take seven babies like there’s age breakdown within the numbers of ages that they can take within the seven.
Jon
The cost of daycare. Obviously, daycare is not cheap, or child care is not cheap. So what we say are the cost that people could expect, and are there ways to bring that cost down?
Erin
The cost of childcare can vary quite a bit based on the different types of care that you choose. And it also depends on the age of your child, the younger your child is the more expensive the type of care would be. So if you were looking at wanting to put your child that is an infant into a licensed group center, you could look at spending anywhere from about $1,000 up to 1200-1500 a month for that space. There are some new government initiatives that have been put out that can help reduce that fee if the care provider has opted into that program.
Jon
Yes, that that can definitely take off a few hundred dollars on the cost, which is great. Still be expensive, but it’ll be less expensive, which is I mean, who’s gonna say no to that?
Erin
Yeah.
Jon
There are also I think, I can’t remember what the title of it is, is like the childcare benefit, or is that affordable childcare? Sorry, I’m butchering this.
Lisa Y
No, you’ve got it. The affordable childcare benefit, which previously was called child care subsidy, so yes, there is that in place as well which helps keep the cost down for parents and they have increased the amount that parents will be eligible for so the maximum amount is $111,000. Which is a huge increase.
Jon
Yes, that is your family income.
Lisa Y
Your income threshold.
Jon
Yeah, there’s a calculator I think you can plunk your numbers into and see what you’re going to spin the wheel and see what you’re gonna get.
Lisa Y
It’s a really good estimator actually. So it you can put in whether you work full time or part time, what your annual income is, what type of care you want, whether it’s licensed group or licensed family or even preschool program or school aged care, and it will estimate a close estimate to what you would be eligible to receive through the Affordable Child Care Benefit.
Jon
And I know people who’ve gotten care for their 12 month old child and they were saying, oh, yeah, cost of daycare is not that bad. It’s like what? But yeah, they they they have the fee reduction initiative. They had the affordable childcare benefit. And yeah, not spend as much money as you thought you maybe you were going to spend on childcare because to have childcare a lot of people would definitely think I need to have two people in our household earning a living, making good money. And if you’re a military member, you’re probably going to be making good money. And in order to be able to afford just to live in Victoria, the cost of housing can be quite expensive. And then, yeah, childcare on to that that can be a huge stress on people.
Erin
Absolutely. There’s been a lot of initiatives put out recently that have definitely made a difference for families. just your average family that didn’t qualify for the affordable child care benefit before now are and so it’s definitely taking that stress off the plate of people trying to get back to work.
Jon
Is there anything else you would mention with people looking for care, especially if they were connected with the military that you would recommend?
Erin
I would say be open. I myself had two children and I thought I was dead set I would only ever put my child in a licensed group center. And quickly it became obvious that that was going to be a difficult feat. So I did go look at other things. And my children had the most amazing experiences with licensed family care. And so be open to trying different type of care. Visit a lot of different places and you’ll know it when you when you get there, it’ll feel right for you.
Lisa Y
Earlier you had asked about questions regarding child care, like things to look at and what to consider and on our website through the Victoria Child Care Resource and Referral. You can find all that information on there. So it has questions that you can ask the child care providers. It gives the information on the fees, how much child care providers are charging. And if you are interested in offering care in your own home as a registered licensed not required child care provider we can assist you in that as well.
Jon
All right. Are there any other resources that people might want other than, obviously, your organization as a resource, but is there anything else that people could tap into?
Lisa Y
There is also the government website that they can tap into. And they do have referral on there as well. They don’t maybe have as many listings on there, as you may find through your local CCRR. But you can also access a licensing list through the island health authority as well. And that is a list of all the license daycares from Port Renfrew to the Gulf Islands.
Jon
When it comes to other resources, I know that sometimes there are Facebook groups dedicated to things. Childcare in Greater Victoria, I’ve heard of that one. Child care providers and networking group is another one. I guess you can find solutions anywhere. Is that correct?
Erin
You can I would caution people over the internet because we all know that people’s experiences may be different than what you would and I would caution about that all the care providers that would be on our referral list, meet all the standards and requirements throughout the province. And so you know that you can trust that there is someone overlooking those particular daycares that are on our referral list. When you go to the internet and just go from mommy down the streets experience, they may not have the full picture.
Jon
So what would you say about the Child Care Resource and Referral, anything listed on that database, people could have confidence in that child care?
Lisa Y
It’s a minimum standard of care throughout the province. Yeah. So what that entails is criminal record check first aid certificate, home and safety inspections, whether it’s in a home or license group facility. References. For registered license, not required care providers, they are required to attend professional development opportunities, a minimum of two workshops a year. So you know, they’re pursuing education throughout their daycare experiences. There is a requirement for licensed folks as well to have some professional development off the start. So you can have confidence in that as well.
Jon
Well, thank you very much for coming and speaking to us about this topic. I’m not sure if we really provide a lot of assistance to military families, other than …
Erin
Call us. Check the government website,
Lisa Y
Check our website.
Jon
So sign up early.
Lisa Y
Sign up early. If you have any questions, we have an open door policy. So we love to see people come into our office and we’re happy to assist you that way as well.
Jon
Alright, well, thank you for coming. Erin. Lisa.
Erin
Thank you.
Jon
Before finishing up, I wanted to talk with Kelly Aucoin. She’s the Children’s Services Coordinator here at the Military Family Resource Centre. So Kelly, what do you recommend to military families? Give us your perspective.
Kelly
I would recommend military families and their childcare search here in Greater Victoria, being that it’s very, very tight waitlists are long, that they can’t rule out any childcare option. A lot of families sort of enter into this idea that they want their child in a center, specifically the Military Family Resource Centre daycare, because we do specialize in caring for military children. And I understand that need and want for your child. But don’t rule anything out. There are great childcare providers out there doing in home daycares, centers that have different philosophies, and don’t rule out where you’re going to get your information from about where the openings are. So reach out to those Facebook groups, specifically here. There’s one called Esquimalt military families page. It’s a Facebook group. People often post on there, you know, we’ve just been posted to Victoria decided to Stay home with my child and not work but willing to take in one or two other children. So don’t rule out those options, go meet those people find out what they’re about. I think there’s great childcare providers out there, they’re just not maybe not doing it in a center. And we might have to consider those options where you thought you might not have before. Yeah, reaching out to those social networking groups. I think there’s all kinds of great information out there. And certainly, I can help connect you with those groups. I’ve sent those links out to people too. Keep in touch with everyone. If you put your child on a waitlist, then reconnect with that centre, see where they are with the waitlist, make sure that they know you’re still interested and still looking. So it’s it’s a process and it’s a project and you just it’s you have to be quite diligent about it.
Jon
You can learn more about the Child Care Resource and Referral at ChildCareVictoria.org. If you need additional assistance, you can contact us at the Military Family Resource Centre by calling 1-800-353-3329.
Extro
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Military Lifestyle. To learn more about this episode, and to check out our other resources, like the Deployment App, go to EsquimaltMFRC.com. A special thanks to True Patriot Love Foundation for funding season one of this podcast and to Organized Sound Productions for bringing our idea to life. Please share this podcast with your military family or someone living the lifestyle. Subscribe to The Military Lifestyle on your favorite podcast app. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening.