Saint John will look at ways to help support the development of more daycare spaces in the city.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, a joint motion by councillors Joanna Killen and Barry Ogden was approved unanimously.
Killen said it has become very apparent that there is a demand for more child care facilities in the city.
“With the recent population growth that we’ve been experiencing, the new $10 a day federal daycare strategy and also the recent [Government of New Brunswick] release of a request for proposals to add more daycare spaces, our thought is that this is inherently a growth issue,” Killen said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s important for our city to find the best way possible to support the efforts and then meet growth targets.”
Council directed staff to “identify options to support the current development efforts of adding additional daycare spaces” and have the chief administrative officer report back to growth committee members.
The motion came two weeks after council quashed plans to relocate a 48-space daycare on the city’s west side, leaving its future in jeopardy.
Butterflies and Bumblebees Daycare needs to move from its Dever Road location to make way for a pending development.
Teneo Ventures Ltd. plans to convert the existing daycare centre into a pharmacy and construct 54 residential units in four buildings to the west of it.
The daycare hoped to relocate to a house on Starburst Lane, but council denied the rezoning application after neighbourhood residents expressed concerns about traffic and parking on the narrow dead-end street.
Proponents said that with long wait lists for daycare spaces, the city cannot afford to lose a daycare.
Ashley King, who owns the daycare, said there are “at least” 140 children on her wait list and they have been operating at capacity since she took it over six years ago.
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