As the first days of the school year have arrived, instead of parents packing school lunches, they are asked to pack teacher-support rallies and bring their children to spend the day at their elected representatives’ offices.
Around the province last week, parents started organizing MLA Playdate, a sit-in direct action, where they bring their children to their MLA’s constituency offices for story time, games, sing-alongs and sidewalk chalk. Organizers say they plan to continue until a resolution to the teachers’ contract dispute is found.
In Powell River parents were also asked to join a teacher-support rally at MLA Nicholas Simon’s Marine Avenue offices Tuesday afternoon.
These options may work for some families, but the majority of parents regardless of whether or not they support the teachers’ position, had to go back to work Tuesday morning. That meant they were scrambling to find someone to keep an eye on their children.
Community centres in larger cities have been opened up to offer day programs and some parents, including some teachers, are opening unlicensed daycares to help out with the increased need for child care. Powell River parents have fewer options, with some existing daycares expanding to meet the increased need and some local youth sport and cultural providers offering day programs, but the response on Tuesday was evolving.
Coordinators at Powell River Recreation Complex said that drop-in pickup hockey is being offered and they are opening up the swimming pool in the afternoon for school-age children this week. Then next week they plan on offering day camps, but are working on finding staff to run them. They usually rely on university students to run the camps but those students who do not go to university in Powell River have already left for school themselves.
All these services come at a cost to parents. The provincial government, recognizing this burden, opened registration for its parent support program. The specific regulations of how and when parents will receive this financial support, however, may detract from its helpfulness. The government has said that parents and caregivers will be sent a cheque with a lump sum within a month of the conclusion of the labour dispute. This approach works fine for families with adequate income who can afford the $200-plus per week in added expenses, but what about those families who can not afford this upfront? Should they be forced to find child-care providers who will accept payment on the government’s schedule?
