Key takeaways:
- Camps are increasing prices, and families should receive fee subsidies due to inflation.
- The non-profit center has seen an upsurge in demand for financial help.
- ‘We just realize this is something that children need, and I know we will try and see every way we can to run,’ Good said.
Summer camp season has started — but with inflation at record highs, summertime kid care has evolved a tremendous cost for families already surpassed by a higher living expense.
Anneliese Lawton, a mom of three from Burlington, Ont., said that the gymnastics summer camp that her kids usually attend isn’t a viable option this year as their budget is hurt by inflation. The base she had intended to send her two sons to charges $300 a week for each camper, a price she couldn’t afford.
“As shortly as I kind of put that through, I was like, crap, we can’t afford for them to do this,” Lawton stated.
Instead, Lawton’s kids, ages four and five, will attend a trampoline and falling camp in town for part of the week.
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An engaged student will help with child care the rest of the week as Lawton juggles full-time remote work and a two-year-old.
“Going to Costco now is like a mortgage amount,” she told. “So, with the high cost of groceries and gas, it’s unbelievable to afford these camps on top of it.”
Inflation and operating expenses drive fee increases
With inflation at its height, summer camp — already an extra for many families — has become increasingly out of reach as families are being pushed to make difficult spending decisions.
Canada’s inflation rate shot at 7.7 percent last month, a nearly 40-year high. Compared to May 2021, customers were paying 48 percent more for gas while food costs went up 9.7 percent in the previous year.
Source – CBC News
