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DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - Fort Resolution's new daycare/preschool began accepting children on Jan. 19 and immediately ran into more demand for space than it could provide.

Li'l Darlin' Daycare, which is a project of Deninu Ku'e First Nation (DKFN), has eight preschool spaces and four daycare spaces.

However, co-ordinator Kim Beck said there are 12 names on the waiting list for the daycare and eight on the waiting list for the preschool.

Beck said she has been getting many calls from irate parents who have been unable to get their children into the daycare or preschool.

However, she said the daycare/preschool has to first take the children of parents who are working or in training, for whom government funding is provided.

"They're the priority, because they need the daycare," she said.

Beck said a lot of the other parents who are seeking space for their children are not working.

She said some parents are also upset they must now pay for the service.

Since 1997, the band had offered a part-time preschool called the Childcare Initiative Program for two hours a day, and it was free.

The new facility offers a full-time daycare/preschool and charges $10 a day.

Children are accepted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, and breakfast and lunch are served. Beck said the service can't please everyone.

The daycare part of the facility is for children aged from 18 to 35 months, while the preschool is for children aged three to five years.

DKFN Acting Chief Louis Balsillie said the daycare/preschool is off to a good start offering a needed service for parents.

However, Balsillie said extra space may have to be found.

"We're going to have to look at getting a bigger building in the future," he said, although he said that would require hiring more workers.

Balsillie added it would not be until next year - at the earliest - that extra space would become available.

Beck said part of the solution might be adding another worker, which would mean the existing preschool could accommodate 16 children.

Currently, three people work at Li'l Darlin' Daycare.

Fort Resolution had not had a daycare since 1994.

The new daycare/preschool is in the building which housed the part-time preschool. That building was renovated A $70,000 renovation project - funded by the federal government's Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy - expanded the building.