Kelowna families given three-month reprieve in daycare closure

Parents of children attending a Kelowna daycare that was slated for closure are getting a little longer to find a new facility to care for their little ones.

Building Blocks EduCare’s Gordon Drive location has been given a short-term lease extension by the developer that purchased the site in 2021. This extension will keep the daycare open until June and will include more than five months of free base rent to support Building Blocks and the daycare families during this transition period.

Building Blocks will remain open, as long as staffing levels at the child-care centre can be maintained according to child-care licensing regulations.

“We understand the challenges, stress and pressure our closure announcement last week had on families, and we hope this will help them find longer-term solutions,” Laura Forbes, director and co-owner of Building Blocks Educare, said in a press release.

2:02 B.C. child-care providers struggle to hire, retain workers

The site housing the Gordon Drive daycare campus was sold in the summer of 2021 and plans have been made for 192 proposed new secured purpose-built rental homes, as well as a brand new daycare space.

During the past 18 months, Building Blocks has explored potential relocation options, however, the lack of available appropriate space for lease, the ongoing ECE staffing crisis and the uncertainty surrounding universal child care made relocation non-viable, the company has said.

In the end, a business decision was made to close the location and to also sell the Sutherland Campus to ProducKIDvity, a locally owned and operated child-care provider, which will take over operations on April 1, 2023, with no interruption in care.

Families with children at the Sutherland Avenue location will have first right of refusal to receive child care from ProducKIDvity, the centre will be helping assist other local families source daycare spaces.

Despite an acute staffing crisis in the ECE industry, Building Blocks is hopeful they can retain enough staff to continue operations at the Gordon Drive campus until the end of June.

Once staff members start moving on to new opportunities, the company will have to close programs.