Cold Lake incentivizing new childcare spaces

The City of Cold Lake is putting in place an incentive to have more childcare centres stand up for the growing need.

At the May 27 regular meeting, city council adopted a policy

This would be open to both for profit and not-for-profit entities that take on new construction or substantial renovations which result in the creation of new child care spaces.

“Childcare has been a massive, big problem for awhile now,” said Mayor Craig Copeland on The Morning After. 

Copeland said there are multiple interested parties that are looking at setting up, but there are challenges with getting provincial dollars to assist.

Previously, the City had changed their rules to allow for the possibility of 24 hour childcare.

According, the policy stipulations read:

• That projects create at least 10 new licenced child care spaces within the City of Cold Lake.
• That the new licenced child care spaces are incremental, resulting in additional child care capacity within in the community.
• That both not-for profit and for-profit-organizations be eligible.
• That administration will consider all complete applications, bringing a recommendation on their acceptance or rejection to Council for a final decision.
• That funding will be based on a per-child-care-space basis, funding of $1,500 per child care space with a maximum funding cap of 20 child care spaces per project ($30,000)
• That only capital costs associated with new builds, renovations, expansions and improvements directly leading to the creation of new child care spaces be considered for funding.
• That reporting requirements assess whether a positive impact on the supply of Child Care spaces within the community has been achieved.
• Half of the grant would be disbursed upon completion of the project and the submission of one of two reports, confirming that the expenses were eligible, the new spaces are licenced and gathering information about cost and demand.
• The second half of the grant would be disbursed following a second report which would gather information about cost, demand, and continued compliance with the policy and provincial regulations.