By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
In the late 1980s, when the “new” St Edmunds Public School (St Ed’s) was in the planning stages, Bruce County contributed some money to the budget so that Bruce County Board of Education could add a large room to the plans with the intention of putting in a daycare facility.
The room did get built, but it turned into a library instead of a daycare. The original plans would be mentioned at meetings every now and again, but no concerted effort was ever mounted to make the switch. The daycare remained in the basement of the St Edmunds township office until amalgamation in 1999 and after that, they got to use the whole building. It was pretty comfortable, except for the occasional flood. At the same time, Bruce County Board of Education got amalgamated into Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) and the new organization had no memory of daycare plans at St Ed’s.
Moving the daycare to the school didn’t seem all that urgent until the flooding got worse. The lower floor of the old township office has flooded twice in recent years and both times it was bad enough to close the facility for an extended period.
When the daycare closes it has trickle-down effects. Parents have to take time off work. Employers can no longer count on their employees to come to work. Staff at the daycare start looking for other jobs, where they won’t be susceptible to unplanned weeks off.
Without a stable daycare, a community is not a welcoming place for young families.
Something needed to be done.
Councillor Smokey Golden decided she needed to be the squeaky wheel on this issue. She brought it up at MNBP Council Meetings — several times — and got Council to pass motions of support. She phoned our Trustee at Bluewater District School Board, Jane Thomson, who happens to be Board Chair. She made sure MPP Bill Walker and MP Alex Ruff knew there was a problem. And she would remind all of them regularly that they needed to treat this as a high priority issue.
Her persistence paid big dividends on January 27, when MPP Bill Walker announced a $600,000 budget to create a Child Care Centre in St Edmunds School.
Stakeholders were ecstatic. Daycare Board Chair Marianne Wood called it “an exciting day for parents and the community”; she thanked MPP Walker, Bluewater District School Board and the Municipality for making it happen. Daycare Supervisor Andrea Munn was “so excited to move forward on this” after all these years of anticipation. Mayor Milt McIver expressed his gratitude to all the parties who cooperated in the planning process. He lamented the absence of Councillor Golden from the meeting. “Don’t worry,” quipped MPP Walker, “we’ll give her the scissors at the ribbon-cutting”.
That ribbon-cutting may happen as soon as January of next year.
We asked Jamie Pettit of BWDSB a few questions about the project. He confirmed the January 2023 target date and provided some details:
“As the recipient of the provincial funding, Bluewater District School Board is responsible for the work, and is collaborating with Tobermory Primary Place to get this project off the ground. It is important to also acknowledge that our board has already been working in close partnership with the child care as well as Bruce County on this application.
“The child care centre will include the former kindergarten room, the former library, and a couple of adjacent spaces.
“There will be 39 spaces (one toddler room with 15 spaces, and one pre-school room with 24 spaces).
“The existing kitchen space [adjacent to the staff lunch room] will be modified for child care use.
“The child care space will get new washrooms as per child care requirements.”
Councillor Golden is thrilled. In a recent interview, she said “it makes so much sense I was afraid it wasn’t going to happen. It helps the school, it helps the daycare, it is a real positive step for the long-term sustainability of this community.”
