In addition to parents voicing their concerns over the closure of the Childhood Connections centre in Kelowna, daycare providers are also speaking out about the loss of the valuable resource.
“Why is it being torn down and then being rebuilt in the community?” asked Robert Southam, co-owner of For The Kids daycare. “I’m just having a hard time understanding why that is.”
Users of the Childhood Connections centre learned last week that, after 40 years, the provincial government is reallocating funds and awarding the contract to another organization.
“The decision was made 500 kilometres away in Victoria,” Southam said.
The centre provides all kinds of services including support to access child care, help with detailed paperwork required to access affordable care, a massive toy library and drop-in child care.
Southam said daycare providers often refer families in need to the centre for help navigating the childcare system.
“It’s arm’s length from the community so it gives us a wraparound service for things that we may not be able to handle internally,” Southam said.
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Jennifer Skwarczynski has owned a handful of daycare facilities over the years and is in disbelief the centre is about to close.
“Twenty-seven years ago I opened my first daycare, and these guys were instrumental in that,” said Skwarczynski, who owns the Green Gables daycare.
Since then, she says she’s used all kinds of services at the centre.
“We refer a lot of parents here,” she said. “A lot of new parents to Canada come here to help have their paperwork filled out. We refer them here for services that maybe aren’t funded by other services and they seem to know where to go because they’re so well connected.”
Skwarczynski said she also uses the workshops that all early childhood educators are required to do.
“You’re required to do 40 hours of training every five years and so Childhood Connections provides a lot of that training,” she said. “They use a lot of their funding to provide those.”
However, the province is reallocating the funds and awarding the contract to the YMCA.
“It worries me in the sense that they’re in the same business that I’m in, which seems like a little bit of a conflict of interest,” said Skwarczynski.
“They are going to be referring for child care spaces and they have many of the child care spaces that are available in Kelowna.”
Letters to the premier’s office and child care ministry have been sent, pleading for them to see the facility before it closes — a facility the organization only moved into two years ago after outgrowing its old location and one that was specifically created for the organization at the cost of half a million dollars.
“What a waste of an investment,” said Childhood Connections executive director Tim Ropchan.
“I think people from Victoria need to come see that … come see the waste of money that you’re about to about to use.”
Global News reached out to the premier’s office and the ministry responsible.
No answer was given when asked if either the minister or premier planned to visit the site.
On Thursday, the ministry said as a result of a procurement process last fall, service providers will change — but the services themselves will continue to be offered in the regions and, through approximately $6.3 million in additional funding, it is to see around 15 more physical locations in more communities.
The leader of the opposition said the situation is reminiscent of what happened at the Starbright Children’s Development Centre last year when its contract was going to be terminated.
“In that case, the community made enough noise that the government temporarily backed down and gave them a two-year extension. I would argue that this is exactly the same kind of situation,” said BC United leader Kevin Falcon.
“My appeal to the government would be please think about what you’re doing and, for goodness sake, try consulting with the community first before you make these decisions.”
Time is not on the centre’s side as the contract ends in just over two weeks on March 31.
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