Province adds 540 new child care spaces
Saskatoon to get 123, Warman 42
REGINA — Shortly after announcing 540 new child care spaces for 11 communities in the province, Education Minister Don Morgan got his hands dirty.
Morgan squatted down at a little table at the Awasis Child Care Co-op at the University of Regina on Tuesday and asked a few kids for help painting his hand red for a quick art project.
“They’re clearly doing a good job,” Morgan said of Awasis, “as tested by washing the oil paints off of my hands.”
Awasis will receive funding for a total of 101 new child care spaces — 50 in White City and 51 in Regina. Other communities receiving spaces include Christopher Lake (2), Lumsden (51), Prince Albert (40), Sandy Bay (4), Saskatoon (123), St. Isodore-de-Bellevue ( 20), Swift Current (51), Wakaw (25) and Warman (42).
“We’ll look at any group that makes the application that has the ability and the capacity to do it,” Morgan said.
Saskatoon’s allocations include 56 for Hope’s Home, 51 for Preston Early Learning Centre at Willowgrove School and 16 for the YMCA of Saskatoon. The Warman Childcare Centre was allocated 42 spaces.
Awasis Child Care has been on the U of R campus since 1974 and has expanded to three locations offcampus. All three of those locations were built in the last five years and have full enrolment.
Executive director Sheila Pelletier said she’s thrilled about the needed new partnerships with the Prairie Valley School Division and Regina Public School Division.
“We have a large wait list of about 600 people at the U of R. We know that we will open both centres fully enrolled. We have no doubt that they’ll both be starting September full,” Pelletier said.
Morgan said the ministry attempts to make room for child care in schools or existing facilities.
“We look for either a community group, school or university, somewhere where there’s other children or something taking place already,” he said.
The provincial government invested $2.2 million in the 2014-15 budget for the development of more than 500 new child care spaces, but Morgan said securing funding is not the problem.
“The demand is high and continues to grow,” he said. “We’ve increased the number (of spaces) by over 50 per cent in the last seven years, but the trouble is finding groups and places that are willing to take it on.”
Morgan said the province’s nine planned joint-use schools (combining public and Catholic ventures) will help alleviate the demand. Six of the schools will be built in Saskatoon, Warman and Martensville.