City receives $25,000 for child care planning

The City of Kimberley will be receiving a grant of $25,000 through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Community Child Care Planning Program for the Kimberley Child Care Programming and Facilities Gap Analysis.

The grant comes as part of the UBCM's recently announced expansion to their investment in the child care sector in the province. The province has committed $1 billion over three years, including $237 million to improve access to child care and funding the creation of 22,000 new licensed child care spaces.

The Child Care Planning Program provides funding to local governments to engage in child care planning activities in order to develop a community childcare space creation action plan. It will collect information about the child care needs in the community, create an inventory of existing spaces, identify space creation targets over the next ten years and identify actions that can be taken to meet those targets.

Mayor Don McCormick says as the City's population continues to grow, challenges for child care continue to arise.

"Child care, similar to housing, is another thing that is outside of our direct control. [Thanks to] staff for having the foresight to know that if we're going to have a strong child care opportunity in the community the results of this grant are going to play a major role in that. Kudos to staff for picking this one out," said McCormick.

Councillor Sandra Roberts says that the grant process was quick, which will ultimately serve the child care sector better.

"It's sure exciting to see that we received such a quick response on our grant request to investigate the needs for child care in the community," she said. "It's amazing."