Clarification re expanding day care spaces in Summerside

After reading the story in The Guardian regarding child care centres being allowed to expand (in terms of children served) in Summerside I was a bit confused.  My confusion came from the fact that the PEI Child Care Facilities Act, Regulations & Guidelines allow for the following in terms of capacity:

Capacity (3) The maximum licensed capacity of
 (a) a day care home shall be 7 children; and
 (b) an early childhood centre, occasional centre and school age child
 care centre shall be 50 children.

The story in The Guardian seemed to imply that centres could expand to serve 80 children. I decided to do some checking into this with both the City of Summerside and the Province.   In reality was has happened is that once this bylaw change takes effect; centres in Summerside that are located in Industrial or Commercial zones will not have to conform to a maximum number of children that they can serve as set by the City.  It will be up to the Province/Child Care Board to determine how many children can be accompdated based on compliance with the Child Care Regulations.   That said, it is important to note that the maximum children that can be served under ONE license is 50 children.  Centres who wish to expand beyond this will need to apply for an additional license and demonstrate that they are able to provide the additional space, staffing etc as set by the Regulations.

In the case of the two centres listed in the article in the Guardian; it is important to note that they are both located in Residential zones.  This vote by the Summerside Council will also allow those centres to expand from 50 to 80 children – provided the Province/Child Care Board approves this.  While the City Staff report opposed this (possibly due to concerns that it would cause disturbances in the residential areas); Council decided to approve them. This may have been due to the fact that their programs had been "grandfathered" into the residential zoning at some point in the past and it seemed appropriate to extent this size expansion to them as well.

So….for clarity…child care centres in Summerside can now expand to accomodate more than 50 children in Industrial and Commercial zonings provided that license approvals can be obtained from the Child Care Board.  This is not the case in Residential zoned areas; except for the two centres that were previously "grandfathered" into the zoning.