Daycare centre asked to vacate
GNWT notifies Yellowknife Day Care Association of July lease termination
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A downtown daycare that looks after more than 40 children a day is set to close in less than a year due to a termination of its lease by the territorial government.
The Yellowknife Day Care Association building on 51 Street is set to close next summer. It was announced this week the lease is set to be terminated July 31, 2016. The daycare facility provides licensed care for 44 children a day for city families, some of whom have more than one child attending. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo |
Shannon Diemert, president of the Yellowknife Day Care Association, and Marine Voskanyan, executive director, wrote a letter to Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins and Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley on Monday outlining the situation.
"On Sept. 22, 2015 we were given written notice from (the Department of) Education, Culture and Employment that our building lease would be terminated as of July 31, 2016," the letter states.
Voskanyan told Yellowknifer by e-mail yesterday the termination notice asked the association "to vacate the premises" by that time.
The daycare, located downtown on 51 Street, currently provides licensed daycare to 44 children a day.
That number includes half the licensed spaces in the city for children between one-year-old and two - a "high-demand" demographic, according to the letter.
In the letter Diemert and Voskanyan call on the government to support the construction of a new building based on what other communities have received in the past. The building is owned by the GNWT, but the daycare centre has been renting the building for a number of years "in-kind," according to the letter, which has allowed the association to financially plan for a new building.
"However with the current cost of real estate in Yellowknife this option has quickly become out of reach," the letter states.
Barring a new building, the association is requesting an extension on the termination.
"Perhaps ECE would be willing to grant us an extension in the current building to allot for construction issues should we need slightly more time," the letter states.
The letter points to Children First Society in Inuvik, which was reportedly given $1 million toward the building of its daycare, plus additional funds when building issues arose.
"The board of directors for Yellowknife Day Care would appreciate the same consideration from ECE to create our new space," the letter states.
Hawkins brought up the letter during question period to ECE Minister Jackson Lafferty.
In response, Lafferty said the department had given the daycare notice as early as May 2014 that they'd have to consider "alternative accommodation because of the age of the building."
He said the department has been in talks with the association for more than two years.
Lafferty did not address any specific action the government would take regarding the requests in the letter.
Reached yesterday afternoon, Hawkins said the situation "is very frustrating."
"The minister's response has been that we have been sitting and meeting with them for two years and he didn't explain why they had to be out," he said.
There has been no indication of any financial support after they have to leave the building, Hawkins added.
"The lack of answers is so bad and it is worse than a bad answer," he said.
"The parents and organizations have nothing to do but speculate and (the minister) can't even explain why."
The association has been operating for 34 years.
It has 11 full-time daycare providers and two part-timers.
A call to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment Tuesday afternoon was not returned by press time.
