WHY SOME PARENTS, AND EMPLOYERS, SEE THE BENEFITS OF WORKPLACE DAYCARE CENTRES. 

Offering convenience, peace of mind and perks like mid-day visits, on-site daycare centres are attractive options for many parents.

Sheila Argue has worked in childcare for 20 years and is the director at Bumper Crop daycare centre, located within the Main St. offices of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). The CWB provides space for the daycare centre in their building, and to reciprocate, the centre prioritizes CWB employees’ children for daycare spots. “There’s a lot of value in this for us,” says Argue, “like the maintenance of the centre being provided for, the use of their gymnasium, the outdoor playground, and some of the supplies.”

The location is great too, she notes, allowing field trips to nearby Old Market Square for music festivals and the Fringe Festival, and walks through the underground in the winter to Portage Place or the Millennium Library.

Bumper Crop’s policy is to have about 75 per cent of its spaces filled by the kids of CWB employees, with the remaining 25 per cent coming from the surrounding community.

But while spaces at this busy daycare centre are at a premium, funding and staffing continue to be an issue. “The Province has been supportive through funding for daycare, but it’s not adequate,” says Argue. “Funding is a critical issue that can affect many centres as the staffing declines.”

A typical daycare centre requires at least 66 per cent of its staff to be qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECE), as they are trained in areas like childhood development, behavioural understanding and play theory training. But with low wages, it’s often hard to retain staff, explains Argue. And fewer staff means fewer spaces, which is bad news for parents.

“Parents who can’t get their kids into daycare have no choice but to have family, friends, or a nanny fill in as caregivers, or they have to leave their jobs and be full-time moms or dads,” she explains. “Often these settings lack the benefits of socializing and developmental programming.”  

It’s for this reason that parents like Patty Rosher are so pleased to have an accessible daycare centre right at work. Rosher has worked at the CWB for 13 years and is on the board of directors at Bumper Crop. Her son Shawn goes to the centre, giving them more time together and the ability to tend to him during the day.

“I don’t know how other parents manage it,” she says. “I get to commute with my son in the morning, so we have time to chat. If my son gets sick or if I forgot something, he’s right here. So, I can grab him some food, clothes, or whatever he needs. And I love getting to just pop down and see him sometimes, or by chance running into him in the lobby.”  

Rosher says she called the daycare centre to get her son put on the waiting list as soon as she found out she was pregnant.
“There’s generally more demand than available spaces around the city,” she explains. “So, I was nervous that I wouldn’t get him in. When you see the end of your maternity leave looming, it’s very nerve wracking. When I got the call saying Shawn had a place here, I celebrated.”    

Colleen Thompson is a human resources manager at CWB, and member of the committee that established Bumper Crop. Her son and daughter also attended the daycare centre.  

“As a business, having on-site daycare is an excellent retention tool for parents employed here,” she says. “It’s a way to provide benefits to employees, and retain top performers. And, it’s working.”

Whenever the business has a holiday activity or special event, the kids from the daycare centre are included. “It’s really nice for everyone that way,” she continues. “Plus, the kids get to see where mom or dad work.”

“As a parent, it’s always important to know that you’re leaving your children with qualified people who care,” offers Thomson.

“The kids are comfortable and having fun, and that’s key.”

According to Pat Wege of the Manitoba Childcare Association (MCCA), in 2005 there were 114,900 children in Manitoba, ages zero to 12, with mothers in the workforce. That same year, there were 25,984 daycare spaces. “That’s nowhere near enough,” she says.

Wege says there are three main areas that are lacking for daycare centres in any area of the city: qualified staff, locations (at a reasonable cost) and available spaces for children.

“Research has proven that the early learning years are critical for healthy learning development,” she says. “Now, we’re gambling with the well-being of our children. In Manitoba, you need a license to fish, yet many childcare facilities are unlicensed. We need a development strategy, capital dollars, land, and higher staff wages and benefits.”   

Tanis Westdal is a University of Winnipeg graduate, whose children, nine-year-old C.J. and four-year-old Charlotte have both attended the U of W Campus Daycare Centre.

Now finished her education degree and working at a high school, she appreciates that her youngest can still attend the U of W daycare centre.

“There is such a diverse staff,” she explains. “Their high level of knowledge about children’s development made me feel comfortable right from the start.”

Campus Daycare director Diana Rozos says she gears the centre’s programming according to the Emergent Curriculum, where the kids help decide what they want to do and learn about.

In an Emergent Curriculum, children work in small groups and dialogue, and their “circle lady” supervisors work with them, taking the kids’ interest in mind and building on that.

As a student, Westdal says she found the convenience of having the daycare centre right at the university ideal. “I felt better just knowing I was close by. In a perfect world, all schools and businesses would have an on-site daycare centre.”