From the Guardian:

Summerside daycares allowed to expand

MIKE CARSON
The Guardian

SUMMERSIDE
— While unanimously supporting the need for daycare services within
Summerside, city council came within an eyelash of denying an
application to increase child services at two large daycare centres.
By a vote of 4-3 with one abstention, council approved a plan Monday
night to permit two non-conforming use daycare centres to increase
their clientele from 50 to 80 children.
Couns. Norma McColeman, Vance Bridges, Barry Chappell and Cory Thomas
voted in favour while Couns. Brent Gallant, Garth Lyle and Deputy Mayor
Bruce MacDougall voted against. Coun. Ron Dowling, because of a recent
affiliation with one of the daycare services, abstained from the vote.
The issue centred around two large daycare centres, Angel Keepers and
Rainbow Day Care, that are located in residential zones. The two
facilities were grandfathered as large daycare centres when zoning was
installed and allowed to continue as non-conforming uses. All other
large daycares are located within commercial or industrial zones.
Provincial guidelines allow large daycares to service up to 80 children while the city’s bylaw permits only 50.
Terry Gallant of Angel Keepers appeared before council Monday night,
saying they wished to be able to increase their enrolment to enhance
the business and provide a much-needed service for working parents
within the community.
Under the new bylaw passed by council, a large daycare may now service
from 16 to an unlimited number of children providing they meet all
provincial requirements for square footage, programs and staff.
Coun. Brent Gallant in objecting to the approval said the city has
literally taken away its own authority to regulate daycare centres and
handed it over to the province.
There was public opposition to the plan with some area residents
concerned about permitting unlimited numbers for a large daycare and
advised a cap be put on the number allowed.
“Council has had several meetings including a public meeting and it
came to fundamental issues,” Dowling said following the vote. “One is
for the opportunity for large daycares to grow and develop in
accordance to the province through licensing and also the needs and
concerns of the residents. It’s not uncommon for council to be split on
issues on that type of basis.”
This approval now gives all large daycares the go ahead to increase
numbers to 80 and allows small daycares to go from eight to 15 on
approval of compliance with provincial regulations.

How they voted:

From the BC Liberal's Website

• We know that 1 in 4 children enter kindergarten not developmentally ready to start school, so we created the StrongStart BC  program, a free drop-in early learning program for pre-school aged children accompanied by a parent or caregiver.
• We’re
  investing $43 million to establish 400 StrongStart BC centres across
  B.C. by 2010.  Today there are 190 centres up and running.
• Education Minister Shirley Bond and Minster of State for Child Care Linda Reid Launched StrongStart BC Early Learning Centres.
• As
  promised in our Throne Speech 2008, we established an Early Childhood
  Learning Agency (ECLA) to assess the feasibility and costs of providing
  full-day kindergarten for 5-year olds and providing parents the choice
  of full day kindergarten for 4-year olds by 2010 and 3-year olds by
  2012.
• We are
  committed to our vision for expanding early learning opportunities,
  including full-day kindergarten for 5-year olds.
• We
  were the first Canadian jurisdiction to implement the province-wide
  Early Development Instrument, a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood survey
  that assesses children’s state of development upon entering
  kindergarten.
• We
  established and provide $3 million annually to the Ready, Set, Learn
  program at more than 1,000 public schools to help parents and families
  prepare their 3-year olds for kindergarten.
• We’ve invested $23 million in the Success by 6 program to support early learning, nutrition, and family services in more than 220 communities across B.C.
• We’ve
  provided over $13 million in funding to support 259 Family Resource
  Programs that offer family development services for families with
  children 0-6 years of age.
• We became the first Canadian jurisdiction to implement the Roots of Empathy program for school-aged children and the Seeds of Empathy program for preschoolers reaching more than 60,000 BC students.
• We dedicate over $7 million annually to support 43 Aboriginal Early Childhood Development initiatives.
• We
  created the Kindergarten book program that gives every Kindergarten
  student in B.C. a book to help them get excited about reading.
  Click for a photo of Minister Shirley Bond donating books to the Penticton Raise-a-Reader campaign:
• We
  invest $125,000 annually in Books for Babies. Every baby born in B.C.
  receives a book bag with a book, CD and information on library and
  community services to help parents prepare their children for a
  lifetime of reading and learning.