More childcare spaces fill ‘absolute need’

By Lesli Strang

Parents looking for childcare spaces in Centretown will soon have more choice. A provincial program called Best Start will add 1,100 new spaces to the Ottawa region, according to a city report.

Nanny Goat Hill Nursery School on Somerset Street West, and the National Capital Region YMCA-YWCA on Argyle Avenue will increase their number of spaces. The centres currently care for 69 children in total but expect to add 35 by April because of the additional funding.

The Best Start program is a long-term provincial initiative to be implemented over 10 years. In the first instalment of $13 million, 34 schools across Ottawa will create or expand childcare programs. This phase is aimed mostly at increasing the number of spaces for four- and five-year-old children in low-income areas.

Jane Joy, the City of Ottawa’s manager of childcare services, says this age group was chosen in order to facilitate a smooth transition between kindergarten and Grade 1.

“(The province has) a vision for an all-day kindergarten-type program where children who are in childcare and in kindergarten have a very similar curriculum [to Grade 1],” Joy says.

The downtown YMCA is set to receive $140,000 in capital funding in order to make 18 new spaces available. All the spaces will be subsidized, meaning they will go to low-income families or those in need.

Mona Rowland, director of preschool development for the YMCA, says this money is much needed and long overdue.

“Being an inner-city program, the need and requests for subsidized spaces largely outweighs the requests for fee-paying spaces.” She says the money will go towards expanding the YMCA’s physical space and adding more washrooms to accommodate the extra children.

Joy says this funding for childcare spaces is an absolute need in the city.

“We know that there are long waiting lists at all of our programs around the city,” says Joy. “There are a lot of children waiting for these spaces.”

According to the city’s childcare website, families can wait as long as two years for a childcare space that fits their needs.

The Nanny Goat Hill Nursery School will also expand its services at a cost of $8,000. It currently only operates in the morning, but Best Start funding will add new spaces in the afternoon using the same facilities.

Director of the school, Cori Thompson, says the community will greatly benefit from the city’s choice to expand Headstart schools. These schools already provide programs specifically designed for children from economically disadvantaged homes.

“For our community, kindergarten-aged children will have the opportunity to have a full day of learning and care. That’s number one,” Thompson says. “And then also, because they have enhanced Headstart schools in the community, those children will also be provided transportation to and from their homes or community schools without having to rely on the parents.”

Both Nanny Goat Hill Nursery School and the downtown YMCA provide Headstart programs.

The City of Ottawa has proposed more schools for expansion, including two in Centretown, but funding has not yet been made available for those plans. Because the funding was based on pressure from the federal government, the money may never be available now that the Liberals have been defeated.

Joy said before the election, “This is the first time we’ve had a provincial government and a federal government with the same idea around childcare.”

She added: “If we end up with any other type of government than we currently have, this is all dead in the water, and that’s a shame.”