Kamloops, BC—The City of Kamloops is pleased to announce that, following an extended planning period, the development of a 36-space child care facility at Station Plaza, 510 Lorne Street, funded though the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, is moving ahead with the YMCA as its service provider. The centre will help address the growing need for child care among City employees and the wider community. City employees will have priority access to the service but will not get a subsidized rate.
The project was initially scheduled to open in 2024; however, the City has taken the time necessary to ensure a strong partnership is in place to provide high-quality child care services. Once operational, the Lorne Street Child Care Centre will offer up to 12 spaces for infants/toddlers and 24 spaces for children aged 3-5. The official opening date will depend on licencing but should be known and communicated in the coming weeks. There will be spots available to the public in both age categories—interested families should join the waitlist immediately and can find more registration information at https://www.kamloopsy.org/child-care_centres.htm.
The YMCA has over 150 years of experience providing programs for children and youth and has grown to be the largest provider of not-for-profit licensed child care in Canada. They currently provide child care services at 30 locations throughout Northern and Interior BC offering programming based on the latest body of knowledge about childhood development combined within the YMCA Playing to Learn curriculum.
“The YMCA is thrilled to be engaging with the City of Kamloops to open a new and much-needed child care facility for families in Kamloops,” said Lynette Mikalishen, Director, Child Care Service, YMCA BC. “We are prepared to bring our wealth of experience, highly trained staff, unique curriculum, and community passion to providing a safe and comfortable environment where children can learn and grow.”
The new centre is funded through the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, which is jointly supported by provincial investments and federal funding provided through the 2021–2022 to 2025–2026 Canada-British Columbia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
“Creating new child care spaces takes dedication, collaboration and perseverance,” said Rohini Arora, Parliamentary Secretary for Child Care. “The people behind this project put in tremendous effort to bring it to life. Their hard work helps ensure more families in Kamloops have access to affordable and high-quality child care.”
“These additional spots are a game changer for families in Kamloops.” said Jenna Sudds, federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. "Affordable child care is a necessity, and we will keep working to make it a reality for more families in British Columbia and across the country."
“With the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, offering access to child care is now a cost-effective way for the City to maintain and attract the workforce we need to provide core services to Kamloops residents,” said Jennifer Howatt, the City’s Human Resources and Safety Director. “The City remains committed to supporting child care accessibility and looks forward to welcoming families to this much-anticipated facility.”
