Boys and Girls Club of Okanagan CEO Jeremy Welder, Marlon Chow, Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu, Emerson Beerstra, and Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming cut the ribbon outside the new Lakers child care facility. (Liam Verster/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

200 New Spaces

Ribbon cut for Vernon’s new child care centres

Sep 7, 2022 | 2:55 PM

Local families will soon have more options for child care in Vernon.

A ribbon was cut at the new Lakers Clubhouse child care facility in Okanagan Landing as it prepares to open, while the city’s other new facility at the Vernon Recreation Complex is also close to opening.

The Boys and Girls Club of Okanagan (BGCO) will run both sites and host a combined 198 new fully licensed child care spaces.

The ribbon was cut at the Lakers site Wednesday, Sept. 7, which will be home to approximately half those new spaces.

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“Two-hundred is a pretty much the number [of spaces], and it will pretty much be evenly between this [Lakers] facility and the one in downtown Vernon at the recreation site,” Jeremy Welder, CEO of BGCO, told Vernon Matters.

“I know it will be a mix of kids under three [years old] and kids [aged] three to five in these spaces. So there’s kind of dedicated rooms for each of those age groups,” he said.

Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming said the addition of the two new facilities and the nearly 200 new child care spaces are greatly needed.

“Daycare is a critical thing for families. There’s just no way people can continue their lives in some functional way and most households just have to have daycare,” Cumming said. “The need gap [for child care spaces] is quite large and each one of these [facilities] make a significant difference.”

Welder and Cumming both added they are pleased with the layouts of the new facilities, which have big open rooms, cubbies for kids to store their belongings, big windows to let in natural light, and a kitchen to prepare snacks.

“The designs are fantastic; the rooms are big and bright and open. They’re all connected, they all have their own washrooms and storage areas and are really self-contained. They’ve got a great kitchen where kids can come and watch what the staff are doing when making snacks. I think it will be a really engaging facility for the kids as well as a really great space for our staff to program,” Welder said.

“Bright, bright hallways, bright classrooms, clean lines, great design. It feels very welcoming. You come in and it’s bright and sunny [with] a playground area right outside the door,” Cumming said, adding he thinks the Rec Centre location is also really well designed both inside and out.

With Vernon’s population of children aged zero to five expected to rise from an estimated 2,287 kids in 2022 to 2,452 by 2029, investments into child care are a top priority for the city as well as for the province, which has invested roughly $7 million into constructing both facilities.

A provision for the provincial funding is that the new facilities be open and operational by the fall of 2022, which Cumming and Welder said they are on track to meet.

It’s expected the Lakers facility will begin operations in October, and that construction of the Rec Centre site, which was delayed in the summer due to some issues with the foundation, will be done and undergoing the licensing process the same month.

Cumming added both projects also remain on budget.

Vernon Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu stated the new facilities will be beneficial not only to families but the area’s economy as well.

“Investments in child care spaces is investments in families, and also the businesses, as we talk about labour shortages here,” Sandhu told Vernon Matters.

“When people talk about child care spaces, affordable and safe, then they can be in the workforce, parents can contribute to their fullest potential.”

She added the facilities will provide nurturing care to the kids enrolled at the sites.

“That [care] helps them to develop into a wonderful human being as an adult because they get that. Nurturing is very important in how it impacts their mental and physical development,” she said.

Sandhu noted Vernon currently has 462 $10 a day child care spaces, which is more than the 200 spaces in Penticton and 260 in Kelowna, and more than half the approximately 900 affordable spaces offered throughout the Okanagan.

Cumming noted both the new spaces, whether affordable or regular priced, are needed for Vernon.

“It frees up 200 families to participate more fully, it’s tremendous,” he said, adding he has grandchildren in these age groups that he often looks after, though it can be a lot of work to care for them.

“If you have the luxury of another system, fantastic, but if you don’t, wow, these are the kinds of facilities that make all the difference to families functioning successfully,” he said.

Sandhu added there could always be more investments in child care to help close the need gap, and that the province plans to continue to offer and improve child care programs in the future.

Welder told Vernon Matters the BGCO will apply for the $10/day program once the new sites are operational, but as of Wednesday could not confirm if any of the spaces would qualify.

“I think there’s a continued need for child care throughout the community and so making sure the facilities have the $10 a day, which is fantastic, but until those are universal, the spaces are still needed,” Welder added. “So we need to make sure these spaces are open and try to keep them as reasonably priced as we can and accessible to all families within the community.”

The BGCO is currently accepting applications for the spaces, and families will be notified closer to the opening date whether or not they have been accepted.

Welder added staff members are currently being recruited to run the two new centres through their website and they will have people in place to run the facilities before doors open.