Child care spots and the location of child care services in Wallaceburg is set to remain the same, despite some changes behind the scenes.
Chatham-Kent council approved a staff recommendation to declare the childcare facility located at 150 University Avenue in Wallaceburg as surplus. Council also approved a recommendation to enter into an “agreement of purchase and sale” with the Wallaceburg and Area Parent and Preschool Program Inc. – more commonly known as “The Family Centre” – to transfer the 150 University Avenue building and property.
“At the end of the day, we’ll have the same amount of day care spaces in Wallaceburg, in the same location,” said Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley.
Last month, council unanimously approved staff recommendations to divest the directly operated childcare centres at the Wallaceburg Early Learning Childcare Centres and at the Chatham May Court. Chatham-Kent also agreed to purchase those 125 childcare spaces from external service providers in Chatham and Wallaceburg.
Staff said in a press release that the changes stem from a $1.4 million per year funding decrease from the provincial government.
A report by Lucy Brown, general manager of health and family services, says the Family Centre has been exploring options to purchase a building, as it currently rents its main location.
“The facility at 150 University Avenue in Wallaceburg would accommodate up to 120 spaces, while still allowing some of the ancillary services currently located at the site to remain,” Brown wrote in the report. “The Family Centre is a well-established childcare provider in Wallaceburg. It is a non-profit organization that would benefit from having a secure location.”
Wallaceburg Coun. Sheldon Parsons said the changes were not easy, but they were necessary.
“It is a difficult things to do,” he said. “It’s what we had to do” given the funding cuts from the provincial government.
Brown said in a previous report that purchasing the 125 spaces from external providers, frees up approximately $700,000 of operating funds.
“This cost differential occurs because the Municipality of Chatham-Kent compensates our highly
qualified Early Childhood Educators at the rate of $24 – $27 per hour while the licensed non-profit providers in the community compensate staff in the $15 per hour range,” Brown said in her report.
“To be very clear, there is no municipal money to be saved through this exercise; rather, this is an effort to minimize community impact associated with the funding formula reduction. The transfer from direct operation to purchase of service is purely about how to best spend provincial dollars to serve our children and families, while maintaining as much service as possible.”
During the meeting, Brown said the change-over will occur on December 23.
She said this would give The Family Centre group the Christmas break to prepare for taking over in the new year.
