Good news is on the horizon for people needing childcare in Prince George.
The City has announced they are offering Kool Cats Kid Care a 15-year lease agreement for their new location on Malaspina in College Heights, days after SD57 announced they would not be signing off on the lease that had been in their possession since December.
The City acknowledged the delay, saying in a release “The development came after School District 57 declined to continue negotiations with the City the week before.”
“In December 2022, School District 57 was amenable to negotiations with the City to lease the newly-built childcare building at 8008 Malaspina Avenue. The City learned on April 20, 2023 from the school district that it had decided against pursuing the lease.”
The city previously confirmed to My PG Now they offer non-profit organizations, like Kool Cats, lease agreements at $1,000 a year – suggesting the daycare will be charged $15,000 over the next 15 years for the location.
When opened, the new location will have 83 spaces:
- 24 spaces for infants and toddlers.
- 25 spaces for children aged 30 months to school age.
- 24 spaces for school-aged children.
- 10 pre-school spaces (for 20 preschoolers attending on a part-time schedule).
“In 2021 the folks at Kool Cats approached me, asking for support for this project,” said City Councilor Kyle Sampson.
“There was funding available through the province, but they needed a partnership with the municipal government.”
Sampson said he connected the daycare with city staff to try and make the development happen, he said “staff took it from there. They’ve done a really great job, I really want to thank our staff… they’ve taken a lot of time outside of the mandate of a municipal government.”
The funding Kool Cats secured through the province’s BC New Spaces Creation Fund and the Union of BC Municipalities Childcare Space Creation Fund – was around $12-million, which helped fund the construction of two other daycare locations, a total of 228 new childcare spaces.
The other two daycares are the YMCA Park House and Learning Centre and Tsulh’cho/Huckleberry Daycare.
“It is a big win, we just need to see it through the finish line,” Sampson said.
“It is disappointing that it took so long,” Sampson said in regards to SD57’s decision to not sign the lease. “Let’s look forward. The past is the past.”
Jean Petrovic, Kool Cats’ Administrator, has previously told My PG Now that once the lease is signed and staff are allowed to enter the building, it should take about a month for them to be up and running.
School District 57 has not responded to any of My PG Now’s requests for comment, but they did release a statement yesterday (Monday) about their decision to not sign the lease:
“While the lease agreement at Malaspina was not feasible for the district, we remain committed to childcare and will continue to work with the City and childcare providers. We did not back out of a lease. This opportunity started with conversations with the city in December. This building is on city property and our obligations are to provide services to our buildings, property and the students who attend there. Our legal and risk management team advised against moving forward. We have 1 successful grant funded through the Province of BCs Childcare BC New Spaces Fund that we will announce once the Province gives us the go ahead. The Daycare Development team for our district also has three more grant applications pending and are working diligently to find more opportunities within our spaces.”
Their release also detailed the current childcare operations they are responsible for, you can find it here.
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