A daycare in Vancouver that offers parents uniquely flexible hours says it’s at risk of closing because it can’t compete with government-subsidized full-time care.
Storybook Buddings in Mount Pleasant offers parents up to 40 hours per month of flexible daycare, with as little as an hour’s notice for drop-off.
“This is the only one I can find in Vancouver,” parent Christy He said of the service.
“I think it really fits the families who don’t need full-time daycare for the kids.”
But manager Ayumi Kato said if Buddings can’t recruit another 50 families by the middle of the month, they’ll have to close their doors in December.
“We keep losing the families. We can only provide 40 hours per month, this is our licence. Families need full-time daycares, and when they get a full-time spot they leave,” she said.
“That’s great, I am so happy they get the spot they need, but they leave us. We keep losing the families.”
Kato said the provincial government’s ongoing subsidies to full-time licensed daycares have made competing with them increasingly difficult.
Buddings does not receive any financial support from the province, she said.
“When I was pregnant (four years ago), full-time daycare cost like $2,000, and our daycare cost like $600 or $700 with 40 hours. So it was still kind of cheaper,” she said.
“But full-time daycare is getting cheaper and cheaper.”
Kato said the business has been unable to extend the terms of its “occasional licence” to take kids for more than 4o hours.
She said it would be “amazing” if the province was also willing to help subsidize businesses like hers that provide a different type of service to parents.
The daycare is lowering its rates in the hopes of attracting more families.
It’s an option parents like He hopes she won’t lose.
“This is the only one I can find in Vancouver,” she said.
“I live in Kitsilano, so I drive 20 minutes here because I don’t have an option. This is the only one … so I’m very grateful Buddings is so good.”