Having a child is never easy, but finding a daycare for one just became simpler for University of Calgary employees. Administration recently signed a contract with Kids and Company, an Ontario-based company that has daycare centres across the country. They have three locations in Calgary.
The university already has two on-campus daycare centres, each with a capacity for roughly 80 children, but a 2005 university report recommended at least 500 spots for children of faculty and students.
The Kids and Company contract will not provide on-campus care, but priority for U of C employees at their already existing locations. The cost of the contract is confidential. Kids and Company president Victoria Sopik guaranteed space for children within six months of registration, a drop from the one- to two-year waiting list at the Campus Daycare Centre.
“We’re unique because we offer a new kind of very flexible child care,” said Sopik. “At most child care centres, you’ve got five days a week for working parents and if you need sporadic or episodic child care, it’s just not an option.”
The contract allows parents to arrange care in the morning of the day needed in case of a sick babysitter or unexpected meeting.
U of C human resources associate vice-president Sandy Repic added there are roughly 600 people on the current waiting list.
“But that doesn’t even reflect the need because awareness of the length of the wait list is well known across campus and people don’t even put their name on the wait list,” she said. “What they tell you now is that if you’re even thinking of having a child you should get your name in the list.”
She added the university has heard plenty of positive feedback from excited parents. As of yet, the contract is open to U of C employees, but not students. Repic and U of C faculty recruitment and resources director Ila Edgar are trying to open the program up to students. They are confirming Kids and Company’s ability to manage the potential volume. The original University Child Care Centre maintains priority for students while the newer facility within the Child Development Centre is mainly for university employees.
“Thirty registered already,” said Sopik, in regards to employees. “We have hundreds of child care spaces in Calgary so we’re not worried about it.”
U of C assistant professor of philosophy Dr. Jeremy Fantl is optimistic that the new service will reduce waiting times.
“I got offered the job in April of 2006 and when I accepted, I put my son Toby who was maybe about five months, on the waiting list,” said Frantl. “He didn’t get in by the time we moved to Calgary, so he went to two other daycares before he got into the university daycare which wasn’t until October 2007.”
Sopik pointed out that many working parents are also responsible for their elderly parents.
“We will also send home a personal support worker or registered nurse into the home to look after the elderly parent,” she said. “It could be [for] recovery from surgery or ongoing help because of Parkinson’s.”
Repic claimed the cost to clients will be very similar the current on-campus costs which are listed online as ranging from $770 for play school children to $1190 for infants each month. Calgary Daycare Centres, a local organization with three locations, charges up to $575 per month. Kidtastic, a national company, charges a maximum of $700. Both of these rates are for full-time care.
Frantl added his second child to the on-campus waiting list in April and is hoping for a reply soon.