After years of trying, Pemberton has finally secured funding to bring more childcare spaces to town.
The funding, totalling $2,771,000, was secured through the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund and will create 50 new childcare spaces via a new addition to the Pemberton Children’s Centre (PCC).
The village has applied for the funding three times since 2018, each time being denied due to the cost-per-space being too high. But, according to Mayor Mike Richman, through hard work and strong advocacy the village was finally able to prove its case to the province and show why the funding is necessary despite the slightly higher building costs.
“We are really excited. Every round came with a lot of strong conversations and a lot of work with the province to prove out our case … this is a huge step,” Richman said.
“I can’t overstate how excited I am about this. This is a really big win for us. I look forward to watching it develop and fill up and like I said there is a still a lot of work to do in the meantime.”
The shortage of childcare spaces has been an issue in Pemberton dating back well before the first application to the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund, with a majority of the burden unfairly falling on the town’s female population, said Richman.
Pemberton resident Imogen Farren has felt that burden first-hand since moving to Pemberton from Chilliwack in March 2021, having to start from scratch in her attempt to find suitable childcare for her two young children.
“By September 2021, when my maternity leave was ending, I was facing giving up my career as a biologist in order to look after our children at home,” she said. “We had looked into nanny shares and all other childcare possibilities and there was nothing available. Instead, I worked from home with them until January. It was hell. I was trying to juggle work meetings and clients with 24-hour-a-day toddler struggles and snack demands.”
Her struggle, combined with seeing so many others on social media dealing with the same thing, led Farren to start a parents coalition in an attempt to affect change in the community.
And while most of the coalition’s work led to “disheartening information,” before the group fizzled out due to the burnout that came with the pandemic, Farren still hopes they can return to being a voice for positive change in the community.
In the meantime, she said she is “thrilled” with the village for prioritizing this issue and the progress it has made with the new funding, even if it won’t directly affect her family.
“Although this will not help our family as the waitlists are so long that we don’t have a chance of securing a space for either of our kids, I feel happy for families that will benefit from this in the future,” said Farren, who was able to find childcare for her kids in Whistler two days a week.
“The village is taking great steps towards resolving this issue, but it isn’t just on their shoulders. There are so many factors that are in play when it comes to this issue, and I hope that eventually—even if it’s 15 years down the line—all parents and children have easy access to safe and affordable childcare. When I have a little more energy, I’d like to keep pushing towards this goal for our area.”
With the 50 new spaces for children aged three to five years old, the expansion to the PCC brings Pemberton’s ratio of licensed childcare spaces per 100 children up to 18.7—exceeding the provincial average of 18.4.
Despite Pemberton soon having six more childcare spaces per 100 children than at this time three years ago, Richman said this will still be an ongoing issue for the community as the village continues to grow.
But with multiple new housing development proposals in the works, which include space for childcare facilities, Richman said the next step for the village is to advocate for proper wages for childcare workers
“We’ve already done some work in terms of zoning around town to facilitate new childcare spaces, and I think we need to continue working with developers and looking at new developments and opportunities for any possible childcare spaces,” he said. “So we are going to build the spaces, we are going to work with the childcare society and Employment BC to look at training options to get folks ready to staff the new spaces.
“It’s really important that we continue to advocate for proper wages for childcare workers. These are the folks that are looking after our children. It’s an important job. It’s a difficult job and they deserve to be paid appropriately.”
