Should Vancouver's city hall make it easier to open daycares in residential neighbourhoods? |
Dan Fumano: This week, a long-simmering debate around child care is the subject of an early policy proposal from a candidate seeking to be Vancouver's next mayor, and it's expected to be on the current city council's agenda in the coming weeks.
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Should it be easier to open daycares?
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If you ask Sophie Ngo, a Vancouver mother of two, the answer is easy.
Ngo and her husband, both finance professionals, work from home but still have a long daily commute. Every morning, her husband drives their two-year-old son to a daycare in Richmond — the only place they could find a spot — then brings their four-year-old son to another in Vancouver’s Cambie Village, then returns to their home in Marpole. At the end of each work day, Ngo traces the same path to retrieve both kids. It’s about 90 minutes each way.
“It’s three hours per day, just driving,” Ngo said. “I don’t know why it’s so hard.”
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From the perspective of Ngo, and countless other Vancouver parents who find themselves in similar situations in a city with a chronic shortage of licensed child-care spaces, it seems like city hall should do what it can to reduce barriers to opening daycares.
But not everyone agrees that daycares belong on every quiet side street. Especially when it’s their street.
Now, this long-simmering debate is the subject of an early policy proposal from a candidate seeking to be Vancouver’s next mayor, and it’s expected to be on city council’s agenda in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, William Azaroff, who is seeking OneCity’s nomination to run for mayor of Vancouver this year, is to release his first policy commitment: a proposal to change bylaws so child care facilities are allowed “as-of-right” in all residential and commercial areas, as long as they comply with health and safety regulations.
In much of the city, child care is a “conditional” use, meaning permits are issued at the discretion of city staff. In practice, Azaroff says, this means daycare spaces can be rejected for several reasons — including neighbourhood opposition — and that uncertainty likely discourages an unknown number of........