New childcare facility a “game changer” for Kimberley: Mayor McCormick

Kimberley’s Mayor is calling a newly announced $8.8 million childcare facility a game changer for the city.

The new childcare facility will be built beside Marysville Elementary through the efforts of School District 6 with support from Columbia Basin Trust, the Summit Community Services Society and the BC Government.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for the facility, which will be built along the main highway travelling through Marysville.

Mayor Don McCormick says the new childcare spaces will help support Kimberley’s growing population of young families while also being located in an easy to access location.

“I love it when brand new buildings are put up on the highway or the major roads, so that visitors to town coming into Kimberley can see all the progress that we’re making,” McCormick says. “I think we are now viewed as a very progressive community and having this located beside the highway is only going to add to that.”

McCormick says a lack of childcare spaces has been seen as a barrier to entry for families in the community, which this facility will help address.

“So with the modest growth that we’ve had in the community over the last 10 or 15 years, the single biggest demographic that is coming to Kimberley is young families,” McCormick says. “Its very difficult to keep infrastructure for all residents up to speed and childcare is one of those that has fallen behind the number of families that we have in the community.”

The facility will add 148 total childcare spaces to Kimberley, which will be provided by Summit Community Services Society.

School District 6 Superintendent Karen Shipka says the new facility will help address extensive waitlists in the Kimberley area.

Shipka says efforts to secure funding for the facility began about 18 months ago.

“We’ve had great support from the Ministry and the New Spaces Fund, from the City of Kimberley,” Shipka says. “This is really the first step in our childcare plan across our district. We have a number of other facilities planned and we will roll them out one at a time as we get approval.”

Shipka praised the efforts of SD6’s Director for Early Learning and Child Care Crystal MacLeod, who she says has been working tirelessly to secure support for this facility.

BC’s Minister of State for Child Care also came to Marysville yesterday, praising the partnership that led to yesterday’s announcement.

Grace Lore says the new spaces will go a long way to addressing the childcare waitlist in Kimberley, which is measured in years.

“Its clear they’ve got the partnerships in place,” Lore says. “They are working with community and community providers to get this done. Having childcare on school grounds just makes sense and the Rocky Mountain School District is showing leadership here.”

While no timeline is set for construction to be completed, SD6 Superintendent Karen Shipka hopes development can begin as soon as possible.