Empty daycares are seeking operators
Georgia Straight
August 28, 2008
By Pieta Woolley

A 15-year-old, city-owned child-care centre will finally open its doors next year—if Vancouver’s social-development department can find an operator willing to take it on. The centre—located in the CityGate complex near the Main Street SkyTrain station—has 24 planned spaces for infants and toddlers. It was built in 1993, and has sat empty ever since.

“We’ve had various conversations with operators in the past, but no one has committed,” Suzy Lunn, a social planner for the city, told the Straight. “Part of the issue is it was built for infant and toddler care [which requires a staff-to-child ratio of 1:4]. So when operators do up a budget to develop that care, it becomes difficult.”

…The second daycare—for younger children—was part of the amenities requirement for the complex’s original zoning. But the project languished from 1993 to 2004, because completion of the space depended on cash from the complex’s retail leases. Lunn noted that lease money was “not realized”, but that the city kicked in a grant in 2004. Since then, planners have been looking for an operator, she said.

Now the city is hoping to find operators for three child-care centres: the one at CityGate II, plus the new daycares at the 1 Kingsway community centre and the Hills development at Nanaimo and Kingsway. On August 20, the city closed an expressions-of-interest process, Lunn said. …

The initial operator for 1 Kingsway dropped out in April, but the city still hopes the centre will open in January 2009. The Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre originally took on the 49-space project—which already has over 200 children on its waiting list—only to see provincial and federal cuts to child-care subsidies. Executive director Pam Best told the Straight that the cuts made operating the daycare impossible for the organization.

“You know how childcare is,” Best said. “It’s hard to break even. So the operating organization often has to make up the difference through fundraising.”…