Grand Forks’ Play School Platoon is 1 of 53 childcare centres across Canada chosen to be part of an affordable childcare prototype project. The project is funded through a 60 million dollar investment from the Province and allows facilities to offer 8 low-cost childcare spaces, charging no more than 200 dollars a month. The Platoon gives children the opportunity to learn to grow a garden, experiment with paints, and explore and discover the world in more ways. Minister of Children & Family Development Katrine Conroy stopped by the centre on Tuesday.
She says they wanted to ensure the project would work in rural BC. “To pick out, so they wanted to make sure that they had places across the province so that they weren’t all based in the lower mainland. Because we wanted to make sure that universal childcare can work in rural BC just as much as it can work in Vancouver or Victoria.”
Conroy adds that there’s also an Early Childhood Educator Wage Enhancement that grants educators an extra 1 dollar an hour. “Starts January 1st but it’s retroactive to September 1st, and then another dollar an hour for 2020. So next April, and we’ve also started a bursary for early childhood educators to go back to school and get their infant-toddler or for early childhood educator assistance.”
Castlegar’s Selkirk College Children’s Centre was the only other facility in the region that was picked.
