The City of Williams Lake will be looking to increase the wage of early childhood educators across the process at the Union of BC Muncalties 2020 Convention.
The convention is being held next week, and the City is looking for the Union to lobby the provincial government to implement a standard minimum of $25 per hour wage for early childhood educators.
Mayor Walt Cobb that the increase in wages addresses the challenge of a lagging labour force in the child care sector.
“We need a wage that will support the worker. I understand it takes a minimum of 18 months for that education, and they’re basically working at minimum wage,” he said. “We can’t find people to fill those positions. We’re just asking the government for early childhood education jobs to be at a decent wage that will actually be able to afford to take the education but actually wants to fill that job.”
Cobb said that the lack of jobs is hurting the City’s ability to get certain professionals in the City.
“People want to come to town. We have nurses; we have doctors, we have teachers that don’t have daycare. They don’t come to town because there is no daycare for them. This hopefully will help that situation, and we can get these professionals to come to town.”
The Union of BC Municipalities 2020 convention will be held this week.