Child care inventory completed for six municipalities

September 16, 2020

News release

For immediate release

Child care inventory completed for six municipalities

Saanich, BC – Queenswood Consulting Group has completed a yearlong project of creating an inventory of licensed child care spaces for the communities of North Saanich, Central Saanich, Highlands, Oak Bay, Sidney and Saanich.

These municipalities received a $150,000 grant through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) Community Child Care Planning Program to conduct the analysis, with an end goal to create a gap analysis for child care services and needs assessment by families.

“This is an important and much needed analysis in our region and I’m glad we were able to collectively as six municipalities take a collaborative approach,” said Mayor Fred Haynes. “I know all of the six mayors and councils look forward to reviewing the findings and action plan to determine our next steps to improve child care services in and across our communities.”

Research in these communities not only confirmed what was known anecdotally to be true, that there is a lack of adequate available child care for families who need it, but also revealed significant barriers to creating to child care spaces. These barriers include a demonstrable difficulty in finding and retaining qualified staff, access to buildings and/or land suitable for child care facilities, and development funding to support new facilities on privately-owned land.

These obstacles, compounded with the high cost of living in the region, cause significant problems for young, working families. There is a chronic shortage of day care that negatively affects quality of life, family budgets, meaningful employment, and local municipal economies.

Public input opportunities

Throughout September and October, Queenswood will present their UBCM Child Care Inventory and Action Plan to each of the municipal councils. Saanich Council will receive this report September 28, 2020. Due to COVID-19 safety measures, the public are not currently able to attend Saanich Council meetings in person.

To register to provide input by telephone at the September 28 meeting, please email council@saanich.ca or call 250-475-5501 with your name, address and the date of the meeting at which you wish to speak to register. You must have access to a telephone, provide a telephone number that can be used to contact you, and an email address where instructions can be sent to you. The registration deadline is noon on the day of the meeting.

Public input is also accepted via email at council@saanich.ca or in the Municipal Hall drop box until noon on the day of the meeting.

For details about the inventory in your community, please visit the municipality’s website:

Learn more

More information about the project is available at saanich.ca/childcareproject.

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Media contact:
Cristina Caravaca
Senior Manager of Community Services
cristina.caravaca@saanich.ca
250-475-5409