Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Municipal council has adopted a strategy that will help guide efforts to support early learning and child-care programs and services in Jasper.
Council approved Jasper’s Early Learning and Child Care Strategy and made several amendments during its regular meeting on Oct. 17.
“Quality childcare is critical to workforce participation and that workforce participation is essential to the effective operation of Jasper’s service industry,” the strategy states.
The main form of child care available to residents is Wildflowers Childcare, which is municipally operated.
“While this option works for a number of families, it is important to explore other options that could improve and expand upon the existing childcare options available in order to better meet the diverse needs of Jasperites,” the strategy noted.
Back in 2021, council approved the use of $24,000 from a portion of the COVID Recovery Reserve to develop a community child-care strategy.
The child-care strategy presents areas of focus based on the recommendations in a report produced by University of Alberta researchers.
The strategy is informed by several stakeholder meetings that the municipality conducted over the last year.
According to the feedback, there are not enough child-care spaces, child care remains expensive and many parents need child care outside of regular work hours.
Jasperites and the researchers identified six characteristics of effective childcare in Jasper: accessibility, affordability, flexibility, inclusivity, quality, and advocacy and leadership.
For each focus area there are strategic priority statements and action items.
Under accessibility, for example, one action item is for municipal administration to explore the possibility of satellite child-care locations for Wildflowers Childcare, while another is research becoming a family day home agency to assist residents in starting private day-homes.
Under flexibility, action items included exploring the costs of offering weekday extended hours, weekend child care or part-time options.
Coun. Kathleen Waxer proposed amending the top two action items of the inclusivity section to differentiate recreation programming from child care, since child care implies a higher level of duty and care.
“I just wanted to say that I am making that distinction out of the utmost respect for the profession of child-care providers,” Waxer said.
“I just wanted to be clear in our language that . . . there’s two different things that we’re speaking about and that those who work in the child-care field, I think, would appreciate the respect of the differentiation between recreational programming and child care.”
Coun. Wendy Hall moved to amend the last action item under advocacy and leadership to include the words “promote the value of childcare, including as an economic driver in the Jasper community.”
“I think it’s important that residents understand that we absolutely support our business community, our tourism economy and the greater community outside of our town also maybe sees us as a role model out there,” Hall said.
“But I do think that promoting child care, including as an economic driver, is important, and I would love to see those words in this strategy.”
Both amendments were carried.
The strategy’s action items will be incorporated into future business plans, and financial considerations will be presented to council as a part of the annual budget process.
A full version of the draft strategy is available in council’s agenda.
