Parents planning to exercise at the Sechelt Aquatic Centre will have to come up with their own child minding plan.
A trial childcare program was cut at the centre because it wasn't covering its own costs, said Bruce Bauman, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) manager of recreation services.
"There was a limited demand for that service in Sechelt, making it not sustainable," Bauman said.
Natasha Lamm (who wrote to Coast Reporter; see letters page A11) is a mother who used the program regularly. She said she cannot always find the time to drive to Gibsons where they offer childcare five mornings a week.
She also said the Gibsons and Area Com-munity Centre program is so booked up that often parents are being turned away.
"I have four kids. It's a good, safe, clean program with toys, and they can see us in the pool [in Sechelt] and I get a break. I'm frustrated, and I miss my swims," Lamm said.
Lamm said part of the problem with the trial program run in Sechelt was that they had only one worker - a great one, she added. She said there was supposed to have been a second worker who never showed up, and she feels that not enough effort was put into finding a replacement.
"They can only take five kids at a time. I know many women who were routinely turned away because there was not enough [staff]. I shake my head at the fact that a recreation centre doesn't offer childcare," Lamm said.
Verona Trincabelli, acting recreation program director for SCRD since August, agreed the biggest obstacle facing the trial program was the inability to find reliable staff to mind the children. A safety ratio of one staff to five children is in place. She hired two people who backed out almost immediately.
"Of course it was being used," she said of the trial program. "I believe there is a need for this, but the circumstances that happened during the season it wasn't a smooth process," said Trincabelli.
Bauman said the SCRD "beat the bushes" looking for childcare providers and none came forward.
"We are having trouble finding qualified, technically skilled people for many positions in recreation," he said.
Trincabelli added the downturn in the general economy also added budget constraints at the regional district as they closely watch how they spend their money.
Bauman said the budget for childcare was originally put into the Gibsons recreation centre rather than Sechelt, based on demographics. He said it "can't be a budgetary item" in Sechelt, but if parents want assistance in organizing a co-op program, the space is available and Trincabelli will aid them.
Trincabelli, a mother of small children herself, said, "I know where they're [parents] coming from I like to work out, and I have used the program. I understand the value of it."
Lamm said she is against a co-op childcare program.
"The point is not for the moms and dads who want childcare offered to sort it out on our own for the rec centre," she said in her letter to the editor.
Trincabelli countered, "It's not working exactly the way they want it to, but it might in the future. At least there would be something [not] nothing."
