City Receives Grant Funding for New Extended Hour Childcare Centre
By City of Trail
The City of Trail is very pleased to announce it has received $2,558,240 in grant funding jointly from the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s Childcare BC New Spaces Fund and Union of British Columbia Municipalities for the development of a new extended hour childcare centre. The facility, to be built at the north end of Kootenay Avenue in Tadanac, will provide 65 full-time spaces to meet the childcare needs of the Greater Trail area including shift, casual and other irregular hours. The amenity, to be owned by the City of Trail, will operate year-round, seven days a week from 4:30 AM to 8:00 PM as the Unicorn Childcare Centre. It will be managed by an experienced non-profit childcare agency and will focus on inclusion, diversity, and creativity in its play-based learning environment.
“We are extremely grateful for the provincial funding for this much needed facility,” said Mayor Lisa Pasin. “Several key local community stakeholders including the Skills Centre, Teck, and Interior Health have been actively pursuing a community childcare initiative for more than three years and we are thrilled to know these efforts will now come to fruition.”
The grant application was driven by the childcare needs identified in several studies over the last 15 years, and more recently, a 2018 feasibility study compiled by the Skills Centre under the contracted services of Bock and Associates. “The study reveals the current availability of childcare creates a significant barrier to families, mainly those working in shift work environments” said Sue Bock, President, Bock and Associates. “Knowing we will be able to accommodate families needing shift-friendly childcare is a huge win for our community as well as our local workplaces relying on parents working outside of traditional work hours.”
Columbia Basin Trust also supports the project with a commitment of $50,000 for supply costs. “We believe our other partners will continue to support this initiative,” said Bock. “We have always known this is more than a social issue. It is core to our area’s economic health and sustainability.”
The design and construction of the facility will be managed by a design engineering firm with a proposed opening date of the facility is September 2022. Learn more about the project in the attached FAQ document.
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