'We've got to invest in our kids.'

KUUJJUAQ – A little boy worked on a colouring book at a Kativik Regional Government office last Friday morning, as his mother struggled to sort through stack of papers on her desk.

About once a week, she and another working mother at the desk opposite must bring their children with them to work.

Between them they have six young children enrolled in child care in Kuujjuaq. It's a stressful situation all around, they say, when their kids come to work.

But these women don't have a choice. At least one day every week, Kuujjuaq's Iquitavik and Tumiapiit child care centres close down partially or wholly because staff don't show up to work.

The reason? There are too many jobs for good workers in Kuujjuaq – so child care workers don't worry about being fired when they skip work. They'll just find another job – and possibly one with better benefits.

These frustrated mothers at the KRG and Sammy Duncan, head of the parent-run board of directors for Kuujjuaq's child care centres, say it's clear why child care workers aren't showing up: they don't receive the same benefits, such as housing and trips south, which other workers in Kuujjuaq receive.

"Why should one part of a major organization in the community not have the same benefits? They deserve equal benefits and they don't feel like they're appreciated," Duncan said. "We've got to invest in our kids."

The KRG provides licences, funding, support, and inspection for Nunavik's 16 child care centres, with a total budget of about $12 million a year. The majority of this money comes from Québec (about 84 per cent) and the balance from the federal government. Parents pay only $7 a day for child care.

There are more than 800 full-time child care spaces in Nunavik and 230, mainly female, employees who earn salaries of about $18 per hour and have access to the Quebec child care employees' pension plan.

Lisa Epoo, head of the KRG's child care section, said she's aware of the problems at Kuujjuaq's two child care centres. One option may be to close one centre to concentrate the pool of committed workers into one space.

But that's a possibility unpopular with parents, who worry that if Kuujjuaq's 160 child care spaces are cut in half, they and their friends will be forced to fund other child care alternatives or stop working.

This past week, as a way of drawing positive attention to child care in Nunavik, the child care centres held their first Nunavik Child Care Week.

The week included prayers, decorations, a fair day, picnics and a cultural parade. Employees with more than five years of service received plaques, while parents received child care key chains and tote bags, designed to cut down on the amount of plastic bags in Nunavik.

According to the child care sections' update at last week's KRG council meeting in Kanqiqsualujjuaq, child care centres in nearly every community are going well.

In May, the centres received $704,526 as part of their subsidy for operations.

The KRG council approved a $331,000 program, which will will see the continuation of nutrition course for Nunavik's child care centres. A chef and a nutritionist will spend two weeks in every community helping centre cooks with menu planning and meal preparation, with an emphasis on country foods.