Parents ask for space
The Tri-City News
By Bruce Walkinshaw
January 15, 2009

Port Moody’s city council meeting got a boost in attendance Tuesday evening.

About 30 people showed up to lend support to a delegation of concerned parents of children who attend the Kinderkampus program at Aspenwood elementary school.

The before- and after-school program for about 72 kids will lose its rental space at the school at the end of June and, with a shortage of childcare spaces in the community resulting in mass wait-lists, the parents are concerned they will be left without child care.

“We can all agree that the idea of our six- to 11-year-old children going to an empty house after school [is not a good one],” said Cory Pedersen, speaking for the delegation. “The loss of after-school care services seriously threatens the safety, care and quality of life for our children.”

The delegation asked council to consider:

• providing Kinderkampus with rental space on the top floor of the Heritage Mountain community centre for one hour in the morning and three hours in the afternoon; or

• providing a portable site in the Aspenwood Park parking lot.

Sympathizing with the parents’ plight, council pledged to look into the matter, particularly in regards to the community centre’s scheduling of the space in question.

But Mayor Joe Trasolini reminded the delegation that there are limitations to what PoMo council and the city can do to help them.

“I wish other levels of government would understand as much as we do because that’s where the failing is happening,” he said. “That’s where the money is.”….