If you build it, they will come
North Shore Outlook
By Kelly McManus
September 24, 2009

Three years ago when the daycare at Cedardale elementary closed its doors, 30 families in West Van became privy to what many have called the North Shore’s “childcare crisis.”

The public school needed the classroom space for incoming grade-school kids, so the daycare, which had been a tenant there, had to find some other place to do business.

It was a tall task, as at the time West Van wasn’t a town you could call especially keen on the idea of residential daycares.

Some childcare providers call it a “not in my backyard” attitude on the North Shore. “Nobody wants a daycare in their neighbourhood,” says Jean Christie, director of Lonsdale Creek Daycare Centre Society, citing busier roads and playground noise that turn most residential dwellers off to the idea of having childcare facilities on their streets.

With space at a premium and rents beyond the means of many childcare providers, operators often find themselves with the pressing demand but no means for expansion.

It’s a dilemma West Van’s Childcare Services Working Group has been pondering for years and the resulting solution is one that planners and providers are applauding across the North Shore.

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