There needs to be a coordinated region-wide plan on the Sunshine Coast when it comes to childcare.
That’s why the District of Sechelt, Gibsons, and the Sunshine Coast Regional District pooled their resources to garner a grant of more than 67,000 dollars from the provincial Community Child Care Planning Program.
Marina Stjepovic, a community planner with the District of Sechelt and the lead local government on the project said anecdotally, “We have been hearing definitely that there are barriers and gaps and there are problems that need to be fixed. I think what we really need is a collaborative effort among the local governments because they haven’t played very much of a role to date.”
She said a steering committee will be established from the three local governments and a contractor will be hired to assess the current situation and create a child care plan.
“So we would be looking at collecting data, conducting really detailed surveys, engaging parents, service providers that are out there now and ones that could be potential, policymakers and then finding out what’s working well, what are the barriers and gaps and what we could be doing to improve childcare.”
Stjepovic said the contractor will have a year to complete the study.
Once that’s done, there is another pool of provincial money available to support the creation of new licensed child care spaces, with a focus on infant and toddler care.
