Souls Harbour Rescue Mission Celebrates Grand Opening of Child Care Centre
Advanced Education Minister and Minister Responsible for the Status of Women Tina Beaudry-Mellor was at Souls Harbour Rescue Mission in Regina today to celebrate the grand opening of a new 60 space child care centre.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to increasing access to affordable, quality child care spaces for communities across Saskatchewan,” Beaudry-Mellor said. “We are excited to see the positive impact these additional 60 spaces will have on Regina families.”
Fifty-four full-time child care spaces were allocated to Souls Harbour in April 2018 with funding provided through the Canada-Saskatchewan Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreement, with another six school-age child care spaces allocated since then. Souls Harbour staff have been working hard to renovate the space, hire staff and start accepting children.
“The opening of Green Earth Daycare has been a thrill for all of us here at Souls Harbour Rescue Mission,” Green Earth Daycare Executive Director Joe Miller said. “We are committed to partnering with parents in the care and education of their children, and the feedback from Regina families has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Souls Harbour is just one example of the nearly 1,300 child care centre spaces which have been allocated across Saskatchewan since the ELCC Agreement was signed in March 2018. Communities that have received additional child care spaces over the past year include Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Swift Current, Yorkton, Moose Jaw, Nipawin, Fort Qu’Appelle, Leroy, Beauval, Vonda, Humboldt and Delisle. All of these allocated child care spaces are expected to be open by March 2020.
With the addition of these spaces, the government will have allocated funding for 7,116 new spaces since 2007 - a 76 per cent increase in the number of spaces over that time.
These new spaces include 75 licensed Francophone child care spaces to support the continued growth of the Francophone culture and heritage in our province.