More child care coming to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows

There will be 110 new daycare spaces created in Maple Ridge, and another 115 in Pitt Meadows, the province announced on Friday morning.

The Family Education and Support Centre is renovating space in a former elementary school on 272 Street, to create 110 new child care spaces for the Under the Tree Child Care Centre in Maple Ridge.

The additional spaces will include 24 spaces for infants and toddlers, 38 spaces for children aged three years to kindergarten and 48 spaces for school-age children. Services provided include child care, family support services, parent programs and resource referrals. Completion of the facility is expected by the end of the year.

Discovery Playhouse Children’s Society in Pitt Meadows is a partnership between the City of Pitt Meadows and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation to create an integrated child care facility with a family-oriented, affordable rental housing development. This facility will be located adjacent to Pitt Meadows Elementary school. It will create 83 new child care spaces – 12 spaces for infants and toddlers, 26 spaces for children aged three years to kindergarten, 25 spaces for school-aged children and 20 preschool spaces. Completion is expected by July 2024.

“Pitt Meadows is proud to be home to many hardworking families, and our city council is committed to making sure that parents and children in our community get the support and care they need,” said Pitt Meadows Mayor Bill Dingwall.

“With limited child care spaces affecting families all over the region, we are grateful for the provincial support in helping to fund these essential and much-needed new spaces.”

Bright Butterfly Child Care Centre in Pitt Meadows is a new facility that will create 32 new child care spaces, including 16 spaces for infants and toddlers and 16 spaces for children aged three years to kindergarten. The centre will be fully accessible, including wheelchair ramps, accessible washrooms, a new HVAC system, washable vinyl flooring and a private playground with new equipment. Staff will be fluent in English, Farsi, Armenian and Turkish. Completion is expected by the end of May 2021.

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The province has funded almost 26,000 new licensed spaces since the launch of its Childcare BC initiative, more than 6,000 of which are now open, according to a government press release. An additional 4,370 spaces, funded through the 2017 Budget Update and the Early Learning and Child Care agreement with the Government of Canada, takes the total number of new child care spaces funded since July 2017 to more than 29,300.