The provincial minister for Children and Family Development has announced the signing of an agreement with the BC Housing Corporation which will create up to 25 new licensed daycare spaces in Port Alberni.

Linda Reid signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in New Westminster on Thursday morning. Under the $2.5 million plan, Kamloops and Port Alberni will each receive 20 to 25 new spaces in existing facilities, while New Westminster will create 62 new spaces, contained within a planned assisted living facility for seniors and people with disabilities.

"This is a phased-in approach," Reid told the Times. "BC housing has countless facilities in the province we're now looking at. These are the first three."

The new spaces will be developed at the Red Oaks facility on Eighth Avenue.

Reid said the entire $2.5 million is new money, dedicated to the three designated projects, and will be spent within the current fiscal year.

Creating licensed child care in BC Housing facilities is a natural fit, and will be beneficial for lower-income working families.

"Lots of folks living in housing projects don't have a vehicle," she said.

"If you can walk your children across the playground to a safe, certified child care facility, it just makes life easier for everybody."

The new spaces created under Thursday's MOU will operate for a minimum of 10 years.

"If we're going to provide new dollars, we want to make sure they're invested for the long-term," she said.

Reid last spoke with the Times in June 2002, when she visited Port Alberni as the Minister for Early Childhood Development.

At the time, the minister said her government planned to evaluate every five-year old in the province, prior to entering school, on an annual basis, with a focus on identifying health and learning issues such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

"We've achieved that," Reid said. "This new announcement is all part of an expanded mandate for childhood education, from pre-conception to five years of age."

According to MCFD figures, the province has created 3,300 new, government-funded, licensed child care spaces since 2001, bringing the total in the province to 82,200. Reid said she has no idea how many unlicensed spaces are flying under the ministry's radar.