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| Michelle Kirby from the Ministry of Children and Family Development took a number of questions from Prince Rupert Council on Monday night covering a range of themes related to child Care |
After Monday's Prince Rupert City Council session, if you have any questions on the range of programs available for child care that are available across BC; just seek out the Mayor and the six Council members, that after they took what may well have been a Master's Class on Child Care 101.
The all you need to know about child care was provided by Michelle Kirby from the Ministry of Children and Family Development who provided a comprehensive review of the range of child care programming and capital funding that is available.
Ms Kirby who is on a tour of the Northwest had previously presented to the Terrace City Council earlier in the day
As part of her forty five minute overview in Prince Rupert she included a look at the results that the Province is looking to achieve through their 10 year Childcare BC program.
Focusing on the three pillars of the program of affordability, accessibility and Quality child care.
Her breakdown on the scope of a number of child care initiatives that are offered across British Columbia included those that make use of public facilities and what some of the communities across the province have found from the models that they have chosen to adopt.
She also offered up a number of areas where communities can access the funding towards developing their own child care spaces, noting that money is available through such organizations at the Northern Development Initiative Trust and other bodies.
One model she made note of was a theme of partnerships between local communities and School Districts, providing some examples as to how that approach could be explored in Prince Rupert.
A topic that did seem to find some interest from some members of City Council who inquired about more details towards that approach.
And while it would seem like a logical step to work with the School District on such an initiative, one wonders if the two sides have patched over some recent troubles that have tended to strain relations between the City and SD52.
The largest of the issues that marked the last few years was the loss of a land sale that the School District suffered on the Kanata School lands, that after the developer of the time withdrew his plans owing to some disagreements with the City on development.
That sudden cancellation of the land sale sent the School District back to the starting line to try and find a buyer, something that they have yet to achieve.
Still time can heal all wounds and perhaps a joint initiative on child care may serve as a bridge for the two groups.
As for questions for Ms. Kirby on the theme of Child Care of Monday there were quite a few.
Councillor Niesh inquired about the process for parents to use to access the funding that may be available, while Councillor Cunningham inquired if the funding to be provided would be consistent both for southern and northern British Columbia.
Councillor Adey commented at how Child Care provision is an important aspect towards bringing professionals and other workers to the community.
"I was very glad to see the linkage between recruitment and retention, not just of ECU workers but the broader community of professionals and doctors and teachers in the North and so on. And the fact that these people are coming to a community where they don't have the extended family or the community connections where they could kind of work it out in terms of child care. So it really does need to be a key piece, if the community is looking at a process of trying to bring people in"
Councillor Mirau explored themes on how the province is using the current initiatives towards further expansion of possible universal child care. He also followed up on some of the models that were outlined earlier seeking more background on how the three municipally led programs worked.
Councillor Skelton-Morven offered up some thoughts on how the City could explore options on how to make use of local assets and buildings towards the delivery of child care.
"Programs like these are not only essential for a healthy workforce, but they're also for healthy families in general. And I really admire the repurposing of old District assets or City assets, we've got plenty of empty buildings so the pool is quite large so we'll definitely be exploring options like that."
Councillor Cunningham also inquired on how the models that feature a partnership with School Districts were working out and what other notes Ms. Kirby had on those projects. He also made note of some of the challenges facing families as they seek out child care options.
Councillor Randhawa asked where residents could find more information about the Child Care benefit programs, he was advised that locally they could contact the Berry Patch or the Government Office as well residents can seek out more background online.
For his contribution o the night, Mayor Brain noted some of the local work that the City has explored on the theme over the summer through discussions with MLA Rice, as well as part of the Redesign Rupert program.
You can review the full presentation from the City's Video Archive, which starts right at the beginning of Monday evening's session.
The City of Prince Rupert recently embarked on its own study of Child Care needs in the community, making use of its Rupert Talks forum for residents of the city to participate. That program was launched after the City of Prince Rupert received a 25,000 dollar grant through the Union of BC Municipalities.
That survey remains open for participation until the end of this month.
The City has noted that further information on the province's plans can be accessed through this link which outlines much of the background to the program.
For more items of note related to Monday's City Council Session see our Council Timeline feature here.
A wider overview of past council discussion themes can be explore from our Council Archive.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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