The expansion to the Osoyoos Child Care Centre cost roughly $900,000 and will create 18 new child care spots. The centre is applying for a provincial grant to cover the costs. (File photo)
Dale Boyd
Osoyoos Times
The Town of Osoyoos is applying for more provincial funding in hopes of securing additional land for the Osoyoos Child Care Centre.
The local child care centre is exploring funding opportunities through the Ministry of Children and Family Development, applying through the town for an additional $3 million to acquire land near the elementary school and add more spaces for child care in the community.
The town and the Child Care Centre have participated in ongoing discussions with School District 53 to secure additional land for expansion at Osoyoos Elementary School to construct a new and larger building.
The town will play a role in project management, should up to $3 million in funding come through and may need to to work out an agreement for land use, as rent or purchase costs for land are not eligible for grant funding.
“The centre may be able to repay the town some of those costs through a rent adjustment subject to their ability to do that based on enrolment and operating revenues and costs,” said town CAO Allan Chabot. “The actual budget amounts are unknown until negotiations with the school district are completed.”
The funding application would increase the amount of child care spaces in town and “most notably make a really large dent in our waitlist for child care in the community,” Chabot said.
The Osoyoos Child Care Centre received $892,500 in funding support from the province’s Community Child Care Space Creation Program in 2019 to renovate and add childcare spaces to the existing centre. The grant covered an expansion to the centre – the first since it opened over 20 years ago — and an additional eight infant and toddler spaces, and 10 more spaces for children ages three to five. The last funding announcement in July 2019 was set to bump the amount of spaces available in Osoyoos to 61.
Read more: Osoyoos Child Care Centre hoping to relocate to elementary school property
The Child Care Centre currently operates on town-owned lands, leasing for $1 per year, but negotiations would ensue for what the town would recuperate should the funding allow the centre to acquire the needed land, Chabot said.
“They had indicated they thought there might be room in their operating budget I think it was between $5,000 and $8,000 a year,” Chabot said.
Coun. Myers Bennett noted that at a recent school board meeting it was mentioned that grant applications for this particular funding have been made by school boards in Okanagan Falls, Oliver and the Osoyoos Indian Band.
The Town of Osoyoos would be responsible for the overall grant management should the funding be approved. Mayor Sue McKortoff pointed out that council was voting to “support and provide any necessary additional project funding if the total project costs exceed the provincial funding.”
Coun. Jim King expressed concern that the town may be left “on the hook” should costs inflate.
“This is a strict requirement of the funding application is this express statement. It left me somewhat less than 100 per cent comfortable,” Chabot said.
The province stated in a press release on Feb. 10 that applicants will be informed about the funding in August 2020. The province has provided funding for more than 10,400 new spaces over the course of 15 months through its three space-creation initiatives.
