Capital $ Are Starting to Roll Out for Child Care in BC

VANCOUVER – The Province and Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association are celebrating the investment of $500,000 to create 25 new child care spaces through B.C.’s child care capital funding program, Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid announced today.

“The project we’re celebrating today is the first of many to come throughout British Columbia as we move toward our goal of creating more than 2,000 new licensed child care spaces by 2010,” said Reid. “The Mount Pleasant association has demonstrated the need for more child care spaces for local families and widespread community support for this project.”

In addition to the new spaces, provincial support for the Mount Pleasant project assists in the retention of 60 existing child care spaces that were in danger of closing as part of a broader relocation project. With today’s capital funding, a new child care facility will be built on the grounds of Simon Fraser Elementary School, with completion expected in September 2009.

“This funding will ensure that the centre will continue to serve children and families in the Mount Pleasant area,” said Nancy Chiavario, president for Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association. “The community is thrilled that our current child care programs will continue and with more preschool and out-of-school spaces being created.”

Funding for the Mount Pleasant project comes from the $12.5 million in major capital funding announced in October 2007 to increase child care choices for families in every region of the province.

“The tremendous response we’ve had to the program so far bodes well for the child care sector and we’ll have many more projects to celebrate in the days ahead,” said Reid. “To ensure child care spaces respond to a community’s needs, we’re basing evaluations on criteria including community support, identified community or neighbourhood need, and financial viability.”

For more information on child care programs and services in British Columbia, visit www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/childcare.

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Media contact:	Seumas Gordon Ministry of Children and Family Development 250 356-2939
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