October 2nd, 2020...
Today we liquidated a 2 year house-load accumulation of daycare supplies, toys, arts and crafts, book and furniture. Boom, gone!
Donated it to another daycare for free. Wanted to give back to the Community...
Was picked up by a lovely young daycare owner in the Community... who is going to share it with other daycares...
Had to close my daycare this week..., Our amazing ECEs lost established jobs. 27 families; some on waiting list and 16 with kids in our care, had their daycare taken away from them.
In 5 days, we planned and moved to a beautiful part of town, into an amazing, newly renovated residential home with a grand piano (for piano lessons?), more space, larger yard...
Ministry Child Care Licencing was on board & coming back to issue our licence. Fire Department approved and signed off right away.
Went to get Business Licence. City of Nanaimo bylaws stopped us.
They have a poorly written bylaw. It starts off with... a daycare can be in any zone...
Then in "double-talk" print says someone has to live in the house. (Victoria & 13 of 17 Lower Mainland Municipalities don't require anyone to live in the house.)
As soon as you live in the house, it forces a change in classification to in-house Multi-Age.
This reduces the amount of kids to max 8.
This also reduces the Government Subsidies we qualify for, that support our parents and pays a portion of ECE wages that allows them to be paid what they deserve! It cuts Government funding to 1/2 the amount!
If you live in the house and provide "in-house multi-age services, you now have to separate the daycare space and living space; (by air & water")
Ok, Ministry Child Care Licencing agrees, we can put in a door/wall in the stairwell.
By now, we have been delayed 2 weeks. Can't go down to the City, they will not allow you to enter because of COVID. They say they're not accepting phone calls. When you try calling, they say they'll call back, but don't ask for your # so they can... email gets some attention if you CC it to City Council & the Mayor...
Finally, at beginning of week 3, City Planning replies and says... to be approved to put in a wall/door we now require a building permit.
How long to get the permit? THREE WEEKS OR MORE just to get approved, so we can erect a small enclosure wall that would take a couple of hours to build.
Remember, I have 8 kids & their families who have been waiting since beginning of September to get back to work, routine & child care.
In the end... week 3 without work, our Lead ECE Manager quits. She needs to work to take care of herself & her family. Who has the luxury of waiting 5 weeks to get back to their job they already had?
My families & kids have no choice but to leave. They now have to scour to find daycare spots in a time of COVID and daycare shortages.
It took over a year to initially get a permit to open at the first location. At a huge cost to the previous owner.
The initial building permit for Little Champions Daycare at 101-1451 Bowen Road; to allow for fire-retardant drywall and fire doors to be installed; took over 12 months to be issued by the City, although hardship was claimed three times.
In this 12 month period, that portion of the building remained vacant at a cost of:
- loss of multiple qualified employed ECE professionals employed to set up the business structure, Subsidy applications, and waiting to manage child care.
- social ridicule and hostility at the prolonged delay in plans as parents and gym clients became frustrated waiting on in demand services
- loss of potential revenue
- cost of building materials to convert the space
- and over $200,000.00 out of pocket in rent loss.
Once the permit was finally issued, the fire-rated drywall and installation of fire-rated doors took only a few days to complete. This greatly impacted the regaining of financial viability to the sustainability of the Gym the daycare was located in
We worked hard to accomodate our growing list of families and by implementing concentrated marketing campaigns to build up our clientele-base of essential care worker's families and Community families who really needed our help during the first COVID pandemic surge.
In the end, even though I asked for expediency for the sake of our families, the City would not make an exemption in granting an expedited permit. One of the women in Planning commented that we should "just move the daycare"
What should have taken a week or less to re-open. 3 weeks later, was not even close to being open...
To simply allow Group Child Care classification in residential homes
To simply allow NON-resident daycare workers so no one has to live in the home. This is not required in our Capital City of Victoria, or in 13 of the 17 Municipalities of the Lower Mainland...
To simply allow for incorporated, small -classroom ECE to child ratio size daycares in family home settings without penalizing them with less Government subsidized funding.
Its interesting though... that the School District of Nanaimo has had a plan approved where they will be opening up 500 daycares attached to the Elementary schools.
Reference
Unfair competition? What do you think?
They have taken away an amazing daycare space, squashed the jobs of 5 people, and have destroyed a viable business. My business.
Today, I am sad...
