Overdue, over budget and scaled back, the City of Burnaby’s plan to build childcare facilities is finally coming to fruition.
City council approved a contract with Britco Boxx to build, deliver and install two modular buildings that will serve as daycare centres at local schools. Each building will cost the city more than $1.8 million.
“I’m very happy to see this report coming forward. I’m very sad about the price,” Coun. Colleen Jordan said at a recent council meeting.
The municipality has planned for a long time to create child-care spaces and lease them out to non-profit operators, but has faced several setbacks.
In October 2014, just over two weeks before the last civic election for mayor, councillors and school trustees, city council and the Burnaby’s school board – made up entirely of Burnaby Citizens Association members – announced a plan to triple child-care spaces in the city.
The plan was for the city to fund the construction of 12 new facilities on school district lands, supposedly tripling the number of spaces in Burnaby.
In November 2017, council approved $6 million in density bonus funds from developers for the first four buildings creating 100 daycare spaces for toddlers on school sites (Capitol Hill, Montecito, Cascade Heights and Stride Avenue).
Now, with less than two months to go before the next election, city council has approved has approved funding for construction of two of those 12 facilities.
The delays and swelling costs have been out of the city’s control, according to Jordan.
A 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision reinstated class size and composition rules and left school districts across B.C. scrambling to create more classroom space. That rush drove the market value of portables “through the roof,” Jordan said, and forced the city to recalibrate its plans.
Work on the first two buildings, slated for Montecito and Capitol Hill elementary schools, is expected to begin immediately. Two more facilities, at Cascades Heights and Stride, will follow, subject to further council approvals.
Once the buildings are complete, the school district be in charge of coordinating operators, with the city footing maintenance bills.
Burnaby was declared a “child-care desert” – where kids outnumber daycare spaces – in a recent report.
“Similar to the food desert concept, child-care deserts are postal code areas with three or more children per licensed space,” said a news release.
Traditionally, B.C. municipalities aren’t responsible for creating childcare space in their community. Mayor Derek Corrigan said he anticipates his council will be criticized for spending money outside its mandate.
“I hope that when the critics do start,” he said, “that they’ll realize that this is something that you should be encouraged to do, to step out of your normal mandate and try to accomodate a special need in your community that will support families.”
City council is also considering a proposal to allow daycares in busy commercial areas, where they care currently disallowed. This would open up more lease space to daycare operators and could create more desperately needed childcare space in Burnaby.
The proposal is expected to come before council for final approval at an upcoming meeting.
