Foreign-based company buying B.C. child care centres?

Union demands answers from government

Vancouver (23 Oct. 2007) - The British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) has expressed concern that an Australian-based multinational company is trying to corner the market on child care in the province with an offer to buy for-profit child care centres.

Last week the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. (CCCABC) released information showing that 123-Global is making offers to private operators across the province.

The company is a Canadian subsidiary of A.B.C. Learning Centres, an Australian-based firm that has bought up and now operates child care centres in Australia, U.S., Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia and other countries. The parent firm earned profits of $123 million Cdn ($143 million Australian) last year and, in the space of one year, purchased 1,100 child care centres in the U.S. It does not currently operate any centres in British Columbia.

Serious questions

"This raises a number of questions. Where is the provincial government headed with its child care policies and are they in conversations with private corporations that would encourage this expansion?" the BCGEU asks.

"The government has pledged ongoing support for families and child care advocates have long argued that public, non-profit child care is the best guarantee for quality, and have urged the provincial government to expand this system."

The union says the government should address some obvious questions:

• Where does a multinational like 123-Global fit in this picture?
• Has 123-Global received assurances from the province that a piece of the $12 million in capital funding announced on Oct. 1 will be coming its way? (This is funding the province is opening up to the private sector for the first time.)
• Have there been promises of future operational funding to make B.C. market consolidation worthwhile?

"It is unclear how this company can expect to make money from child care, when non-profit centres in British Columbia are already struggling to offer quality service at current rates; are having difficulties attracting workers at current wage rates, and when many parents cannot afford existing fees," the union says.

"The provincial government (of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell) has some explaining to do. The union intends to work with child care advocates to pursue some real answers about the possibility of commercialization of child care in B.C."

123-Global web site

The 123-Global web site says the company has "partnered with many of the world’s largest childcare providers – including 123 Busy Beavers Learning Centres in Canada to design, develop and acquire high-quality centres all around the world..."

"123-Global is constantly seeking new opportunities and markets and welcomes any proposals relating to potential centre or site acquisitions." NUPGE