Just ahead of the new year, Niverville’s council has set for themselves a resolution to bring 300 new daycare spots to the community by 2030.

In the end, the province has final authority over new daycare spots granted. Still, council believes that, with some push and encouragement, more local daycare spaces might be expedited.

With that in mind, council created a four-point strategy to be implemented immediately.

“Businesses need to attract workers for our community to continue to thrive,” says Mayor Myron Dyck. “The lack of access to daycare for parents should not be the reason that we can’t attract workers, and that is one reason why council has created this comprehensive daycare strategy.”

To begin, council will advocate for the province to create reasonable licensing requirements to encourage more interest from daycare providers.

At the same time, they plan to work alongside developers and building owners, providing land where possible and encouraging the provision of daycare space in new and existing buildings.

In the near future, council hopes to expand opportunities for childcare training to be offered locally.

Finally, they’ll continue to promote their current grant for home-based daycare businesses. That grant, created in 2022, offers $2,000 towards a new daycare’s startup costs, provided they’ve obtained a license to operate from the province.

Existing daycares are also eligible to receive the grant, on a one-time basis, when they increase their daycare spots by a minimum of five.

Growing Minds Childcare Centre is currently Niverville’s only licenced daycare. They operate out of three locations: the Heritage Centre, 25 Main Street, and the Niverville High School.

In spring, Growing Minds had an enrolment capacity of 204 childcare spaces. That amounts to less than three percent of Niverville’s population, posing a dire concern when it comes to attracting new families to the community.

At the same time, Growing Minds had a waiting list of 700.