More infant and toddler care is needed in the South Peace, says Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre Executive Director Johanna Martens, who pitched a partnership expansion project to the City of Dawson Creek at their Jan. 29 meeting.
The city is in the midst of a child care crisis, and only able to provide service for less than 20 percent of the 400 infants born each year in the community, with infant and toddler wait lists exceeding two years.
“For the city, this would be a huge political win. We’ve had a lot of conversations over the last little while of different organizations and groups coming to you folks, and saying that child care is such a need and a priority,” said Martens.
The full cost of the project hasn’t been fully determined yet, but it’s estimated at around $5 million.
The city could submit an application to cover the majority of the costs through BC’s current daycare funding program, in addition to providing the land for a new daycare, and maintaining ownership of the new building and land, explained Martens, while KPAC would submit a facility plan to Northern Health and manage the daycare services.
It’s a similar arrangement to an existing agreement with the centre and the city, she added, noting KPAC already offers child care, but sees the increasing demand.
“We currently already operate a daycare, so this is not outside of our wheelhouse to jump into another daycare space,” said Martens.
A vacant lot next door to the centre is the proposed location for the new daycare space, and NUQO Elevated Modular, a construction company, specializes in building prefabricated daycare buildings, and has already approached KPAC with license compliant classroom designs. A new building would have a life-span of 25 years.
A cohort of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) are also set to graduate from Northern Lights College in 2025, added Martens, which would provide a workforce for the new daycare, suggesting a summer 2024 building period and summer 2025 opening, if the city was interested in going forward with an application.
Coun. Charlie Parslow said the city needs to decide if it's comfortable with the proposal, and make sure responsibilities aren't being downloaded from the province to the municipality, but acknowledged Martens' observation that the city has partnered with KPAC in the past through a lease agreement.
"It is an overarching issue, right, what do we take on?," said Parslow, noting the City of Vancouver had been criticized for taking on child care. He further suggested that Martens see if there are local business partners willing to invest in the new space.
Coun. Jerimy Earl said while he appreciates the need for quality child care, there are other costs to consider.
"There is ongoing operational costs that's going to come with that," he said. "That we're going to need to get a handle on, especially if it's going to be part of the upcoming budget."
Martens' provided timeline for the project suggested that a provincial funding application be started by February and submitted by March, which would be very tight for the city, noted Earl, with the city already balancing other operational costs.
You can read the business plan for the centre here:
Kiwanis Daycare Business Plan by Tom Summer on Scribd
