File Photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

'THESE ARE CRITICAL SPACES'

Kamloops councillor hopes province agrees on ‘perfect’ childcare opportunity

Feb 27, 2025 | 4:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops city council is joining the fight to ensure more childcare spaces are opened in the River City — and in particular, long-promised $10-per-day spaces. During Tuesday’s (Feb. 25) regular meeting, Councillor Katie Neustaeter utilized her councillors report time to highlight the need throughout Kamloops and the fact that hundreds of spaces could be in jeopardy without government action.

Currently within the city of Kamloops, there are 295 $10-per-day daycare spaces, with operators hoping to expand the number drastically through the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund. Neustaeter, though, feels the program is being slow-rolled by government.

“We expected to have answers about that funding in September of last year. [We] still haven’t heard anything yet and now we are in great danger of losing that site as a possibility. It’s been two-and-a-half years of work and we hope the ministry receives this with urgency and recognizes the need here in Kamloops,” Neustaeter told CFJC Today.

More than 150 of the nearly 300 spaces in the queue relate to Children’s Circle’s planned expansion, a move designed to help healthcare workers at Royal Inland find steady child care during work.

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“These are critical spaces that we need right now. Half of them made even more so because they are attached to families who have healthcare providers as parents. We desperately need those people working here in our city,” added Neustaeter.

It’s believed the deadline to hear back from the province on funding is the end of next month. For its part, the ministry states it received a high number of applicants in the latest window, outweighing the available funding.

“The most recent New Spaces Fund application intake ran from May to August 2024 and received a high number of applications. Funding is awarded based on budget availability. For 2024-25, more New Spaces Fund applications have been received than there is available funding,” read an emailed statement from the Ministry of Education and Child Care.

“Interior Health is at the table, there is the land owner, the city, the childcare provider. It can’t be in a holding pattern for an indeterminate amount of time. What we are really asking for is an expression to let us know if we can secure these spaces because families are waiting on it and so are the people of Kamloops,” said Neustaeter.

Community stakeholders will also be looking to next week’s provincial budget for clarity on childcare space funding moving forward.