Petition launched to save MY Place daycare
With daycare capacity elsewhere, society looking at meeting needs of arts and culture sector
PIQUE Newsmagazine
By Clare Ogilive
April 2008

Parents who use the soon-to-be-closed Teddy Bear Daycare have launched a petition to keep the centre in Millennium Place open.

“We believe closing a publicly funded daycare is wrong,” said Jennifer Abbott, who started the petition, which already has over 300 signatures.

“We have been circulating it. Every single parent at Teddy Bear Daycare has a copy, and the staff has a copy. We are going door to door in neighbourhoods, we are going to all the businesses, we are going to all the business owners…..

 “I have found wholeheartedly that most people are genuinely shocked that a daycare is being closed.”

The board of Millennium Place has been wrestling with the future of the Teddy Bear Daycare space for many months.

When the daycare opened in 2001 it was to meet a perceived need in the community for after-hours, weekend and tourist drop-in childcare. But over time the number of parents needing these services has dropped off. It has been closed Sundays for months and it is likely it will close on Saturdays soon.

“ …The landscape has changed and Millennium Place is not necessarily about ownership of programs but about looking around the community and figuring out where the greatest need is and to apply our resources toward that need,” said Dennis Marriott, Millennium Place’s general manager, adding that the daycare is slated to close June 30.

“Yes, there is definitely recognition that children are the most precious resource we have in Whistler, but there is also the recognition that there is not a lot of space in Whistler and arts and culture in particular is suffering…..

Abbott, of the Blackcomb Lodge, said both she and her husband, Scott Holmes, the chef at the Longhorn, chose Teddy Bear for daughter Ries, now three years old, because they could drop her off on the way to work.

“I can walk (my daughter) to school everyday, which I think is just such a phenomenal experience,” said Abbott.

While she now rarely uses the weekend hours she believes the service needs to stay in place if Whistler is to retain and attract families who work in the service sector.

“One of the fundamental issues is that as a ski resort trying to move toward sustainability, as outlined in the Whistler 2020 study that was done, it is increasingly getting ever more difficult for long-term employees to be retained. And how are you going to recruit and keep families if you don’t have the facilities to support them?” said Abbott.

The Spring Creek location of the Whistler Children’s Centre is not a good replacement option added Abbott, since most parents don’t want to drive even further than they already do and in the winter it is one of the most challenging stretches of road to commute.

The board of MYMP Society has agreed to meet with concerned parents ….Marriott said the society must act responsibly in running the facility and that currently Teddy Bear Daycare is costing about $30,000 to $50,000 more than it is bringing in….

Marriott said no firm decision has been made yet on what might occupy the 1,500 square foot space, but it’s likely the occupant will have a strong tie to arts and culture.

…. Marriott said the space is being looked at in the short-term and the long-term as the mandate of My Place is to provide a service that is needed by the community.

For that reason it may have one use leading up to 2010, another at Games time, and transition again after the Olympic and Paralympic Games are over….

The Whistler Children’s Centre has been taking part in some of the discussions around the closure of Teddy Bear, said executive director Julia Black.

WCC has looked at their capacity and all the Teddy Bear kids could be accommodated at the Nesters location at the end of June, when most of the current Kindergarten kids take-off.

And, said Black, the WCC is looking at the hours of operation to see if it is feasible to extend them and perhaps even offer a multi-age program on Saturdays.

“We are not inflexible but we have to be responsible, especially with the funding that we receive from various parties,” said Black….