Daycare program gets six-month extension: Mount Pleasant parents praise park board
Vancouver Courier
By Sandra Thomas
March 27, 2009

Parents of children attending the daycare program at Mount Pleasant Community Centre gave the park board kudos for voting to leave the building open for an extra six months until a new facility is completed.

Phalgun Joshi, who has children attending both the daycare and neighbouring Simon Fraser elementary, was pleased with the results of the board's unanimous vote Monday night.

"It's unheard of to have the community heard in such a unanimous, unpartisan way," said Joshi, a member of Simon Fraser's parent advisory committee. "It's so often that elected officials don't listen, but in this case we couldn't have asked the park board for any more."

At Monday night's park board meeting, Vision Vancouver commissioner Aaron Jasper asked the board to approve the use of the centre's day and after-school care until March 15, 2010, at no cost to the board. The former park board voted to demolish the popular facility, … once the new Mount Pleasant Civic Centre, also known as 1 Kingsway, is complete. Parents of children attending the daycare, with support from the school board, worked on a plan to have a modular facility built on the Simon Fraser property. All was well until the park board recently announced the new centre will open this September, six months earlier than expected, leaving a gap in child care services close to home for Simon Fraser students….

"We weren't in a position to ask for funds if we had no guarantee from the board," said Joshi. "But now we can go ahead."

Kerri Abramson, a parent with the Simon Fraser parent advisory committee, called the news "great."…

"Now we're onto the next step, securing the funding needed to operate this interim solution," she wrote.

According to a parks staff report, the most basic plan would see the lower floor of the community centre used during the week for child care at a cost of $11,000 a month for utilities, staff, building maintenance and equipment. Expanded use of the building, including extended hours as has been considered by the association, could cost up to $23,000 a month, bringing the estimated price tag for the six-month interim period to between $66,000 and $138,000. The report notes that while the association might be able to raise the funds needed, the money would better be used to complete the modular facility. The report also notes that allowing the daycare to remain open delays the board's plan to return the property to park land. In the report staff recommended using the new Mount Pleasant Centre until the modular building is completed….

"In this case all of the partisan stuff was left at the door. At the end of the day it was a unanimous decision and again, at no cost to the park board."