BOYLE — It may not seem important to some, but daycare is important.
Considered a childcare “desert” the Village of Boyle will finally have an official daycare centre starting soon at 4908-4th Street, even if the official date has not been set yet. The staff are hired, the building is fenced, the training is underway and owner Shauna Hannin is excited at the opportunity.
“I decided to expand to Boyle as they are considered a daycare desert, meaning that families have no access in their community to licensed childcare spaces,” Hannin said Dec. 23. “As a parent of eight I know how the lack of subsidized childcare spaces impacts one's ability to work.”
It has been a year in the works since Hannin started looking for a building and found one in the old senior’s centre.
“The building has been there for a long time and now it's been repurposed; it was the old senior’s centre,” said Boyle mayor Colin Derko in a Dec. 22 interview. “We were looking to do something with it and this lady came along wanting to put in a daycare, so it worked out.”
Hannin said she started considering expanding from her Lac La Biche-based It’s All About Play; Family Centre location to include Boyle in January 2020 but didn’t start looking for a suitable location until March and didn’t secure it until September 2021.
“It is a huge process to open a licensed childcare facility; there is zoning, building inspections, fire inspections, health inspections, licensing inspections and the ordering of the required supplies, as rooms must be completely set up before many of the inspections can be done,” she said. “Program plans must be written and approved by the licensing officer, that is just the beginning, then there is the hiring and training of staff.”
Hannin added she has staff but always needs casual staff and not all the details are, or can be, hammered out until families start applying for spaces, which includes for babies.
“We are unsure of the exact hours at this time, once we start accepting registrations then we will have a better idea of what the community needs for expanded hours,” she said. “We had planned to be open on Jan. 3, but due to some supplies being delayed, and the holiday season lots of things have been delayed, so all staff (were) in first aid training on Jan. 3.”
Derko is happy because as a businessperson and parent himself, he knows how stressful it can be for families who, until now, needed to find flexible hours to ensure they could be home before and after school.
“I think it's a fabulous opportunity for our community and I’m more than happy to welcome her into town. It'll sure open a lot of avenues for everybody and it's gonna make it a lot easier for our business community too because I know myself, I could use somebody, but they can’t come in until 9 o'clock and must leave by 3,” said Derko. “Sometimes I need that person at work and if they've got a place their kid can go to then what a great thing.”
Hannin can be reached at [email protected] or 780-623-4500.
