More than 1,500 toddlers in Chatham-Kent are on the wait list for childcare, which means roughly 30% of kids in the municipality have access and the number goes down from there in other areas.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives created a list of licensed child care spaces compared to the number of children across the country by postal code. The centre showed the data in an interactive map of Canada and called it "Child Care Deserts," as the majority of municipalities have programs available for less than 50% of the toddler population.
According to the statistics, CK has as low as 20% coverage in some areas, which Kelly Emery, director of child care and early years division, said is due to a lack of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs).
"We seem to have a real shortage of drawing ECEs into the college and staying in the field afterwards," Emery said. "ECEs do not make a huge wage and that makes it difficult to keep young people in the field. Often what happens is they either go back to school to become teachers or they actually leave the field."
The municipality is not taking the statistics sitting down though. Emery said there are multiple projects in the works to increase childcare availability. She said CK is working with St. Clair College to develop an apprenticeship and with other departments to rebrand ECE as a profession in order to attract more people in the field to the community.
While the future looks bright, Emery said there are more than her estimated 1,500 toddlers without proper childcare.
"What we hear is that family members and neighbours are typically watching some of the children," Emery said. "We also know some are in unlicensed home childcare, which is acceptable as long as those facilities have under six children."
Emery said the only concern she has with unlicensed childcare facilities is when they try to care for too many kids because they often don't have the resources to properly care for all of them.
"There have been incidents throughout the province, and throughout the country, of serious injuries and sometimes death in homes where it's not regulated and they're not running within the five children or less rule," Emery said.
She added the municipality is working to expand licensed childcare spaces, but the shortage of ECEs remains the major hurdle. Emery said the federal and provincial governments have agreed on additional funding to make childcare not only more available for families but more affordable as well.
According to Emery, the municipality has increased hours at some centres to try and help parents who don't work traditional day shifts. She said CK is also working with school boards to make sure new buildings have childcare in them and are applying for any additional funding that becomes available.
Emery added some people don't realize just how important it is for toddlers to be exposed to proper programming.
"Early brain development is so key for little ones," Emery said. "Between zero and two is the biggest time for brain development. It is very important to get them into quality programming to better their trajectory in life."
Ultimately, Emery said it is an exciting time as the government is pushing for quality, licensed childcare.
"We hope it continues and look forward to providing more licensed childcare spaces to all of the families in Chatham-Kent."
