SUNDRE – With the new federal funding program for child care coupled with the provincial government’s ongoing subsidies for those who qualify, spaces in local daycares are either approaching or already at capacity with growing wait lists as parents scramble to find a spot for their children with summer around the corner.
“The reason they’re filling up so fast is because of the new government funding,” Korie Graham, the owner of privately-run Mount Imagination Childcare Centre, told the Albertan.
“I would say at this point, close to between 60 and 70 per cent of my daycare children, basically are coming to daycare for free,” Graham said during a phone interview.
“Because with the subsidy and affordability grant, my childcare centre is literally at no cost to parents if they qualify for subsidy,” she said.
With the new affordability grant delivered by the Canadian government supplementing the Alberta government’s subsidy for households earning $180,000 or less, she said, “It’s been good on both ends. It’s good for the parents, it’s good for daycares because it’s a very steady income coming in.”
Asked if her centre was at capacity and no longer accepting further registrations until more spaces become available, Graham said, “We’re slowly getting to that point. There’s a lot of young kids enrolling in daycare at the moment.”
Although she’s now started a wait list, Graham said she tries to accommodate as many people as possible. Mount Imagination is licensed to have 35 children on the site at one time, she said.
“But just last month, we had 64 kids go through daycare,” she said, adding availability tends to fluctuate. “Some of my full-time kids only come three days a week, so I have the two extra days. It’s a juggling act right now.”
Responding to a question about what she thinks could help to alleviate the shortage of available spaces and whether she might be considering plans to expand her own operation, Graham said, “Not at the moment. It’s kind of a tough thing to do. You’d have to get a bigger space or I think you would have to change spaces.”
With about 15 years of experience running the daycare, she said she’s heard from families who in the past had their children attend her centre wondering why the spaces are filling up so much and added “just the shock on people’s faces when you say: ‘Well, it’s free to most of the kids.’”
That not only means more families are able to afford childcare, but it also enables them to have more of their income to spend elsewhere in the community, she agreed.
Over at the non-profit Sundre Daycare Centre, executive director Harley Telgen said they have reached their capacity of 64.
“And we have quite the extensive wait list also with more inquiries coming in every day,” Telgen told the Albertan during a phone interview.
“Right now, for just our toddler and pre-school program, we have 25 children on the wait list,” she said. “And then for our out-of-school care program and our summertime program, we have 10 children on that list.”
The daycare, which is located in the Sundre Community Centre with a satellite presence in River Valley School, has three classrooms but their space is limited.
So even though the daycare is licensed for 12 children per room, they can only physically accommodate 10, she said.
“We try to cut it down by at least two children, just so then there’s room for equipment in the classrooms as well as the kids and educators,” she said.
Their toddler program has room for 12 while the pre-school program can have 24. The satellite space that was made available courtesy of a collaborative effort with RVS can accommodate 38, she said.
The only remedy, realistically, is more space.
“Ideally, we would like to add another classroom to our programs,” she said. “The trouble that we’re facing there, is a lot of the commercial landlords in town don’t want to rent to a daycare.”
And the current location is perfect, she said, adding the school is connected the community centre building that also happens to be the home of the municipal library and is basically across the street from the Sundre Aquaplex.
“We use all of those amenities on a regular basis,” she said.
Janelle Mikal, a past president and current director of the non-profit organization, said previous discussions with the municipality about the possibility of using the community services department’s space in the community centre ultimately fell through.
“So, we started looking into other places to rent around the community,” Mikal said.
But finding either a landlord who is willing to accommodate a childcare centre or a location that is both affordable for the organization as well as suitable and conveniently situated for families, is no easy feat.
“Just finding a space that’s close by and that is affordable for a non-profit is a challenge for sure,” she said, adding an effort to persuade the school division to provide more space at River Valley also did not pan out.
“Our one room – that’s what we got. And we’re grateful for that one room, because we run our out-of-school programming and our summer programming from that one room in the school,” she said.
That might leave as a last resort resuming the effort to lobby the municipality for additional space at the community centre, she said.
“Because that’s the best option, and we just haven’t been able to secure it as of yet, or come up with a viable alternative option,” she said.
“We want to take it back to council,” she said.
“I hope that the new board of directors is able to take this forward to council and that we are able to secure additional space and to continue to grow the daycare, because there’s obviously a need for reliable childcare in Sundre,” she said.
“We have tons of inquiries from people trying to secure spaces … that’s the number one thing when people are looking to move to our community, is can we secure childcare?”
