'It's frustrating and tiring': Another western Newfoundland daycare faces government delays

Colleen Connors · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 02, 2025 4:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 2

The Mi'kmaw Cultural Foundation successful Stephenville is trying to unfastened a registered child-care centre successful a recently leased building, but it's stuck successful a limbo play while waiting on provincial authorities support to determination guardant with renovations.

"It's frustrating and tiring. We are exhausted," Jeffrey Young, president and CEO of the foundation, told CBC News.

Young applied for the child-care capableness inaugural backing done the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development successful aboriginal January. 

The backing programme is designed for not-for-profit organizations, similar the Mi'kmaw Cultural Foundation, to make regulated child-care services wherever the request has been identified.

He said determination was a strong response from unit successful the determination office, but helium is stuck waiting for an approval from the minister's bureau for the adjacent signifier of the project.

"It's been this ongoing … silence and nary responses. We were initially told by 1 of the employees successful the section to springiness it a six-month play for you guys to beryllium open. That was successful January. We are coming up connected six months and we don't adjacent person Phase 2 approved by the government," said Young.

The support would allow renovations, staffing and furniture purchases for the recently rented space, which already has aggregate league rooms, playrooms, 2 kitchens, bathrooms and entree to the outdoors.

Young said helium has emailed and phoned the department's existent and aged ministers, and contacted opposition parties about his concerns.

Just 24 kilometres distant successful St. George's, child-care operators look akin frustrations with governments this month, as they hold to unfastened a registered daycare to accommodate an already agelong waitlist.

• St. George's assemblage sick of waiting connected authorities support for child-care centre

Young says helium is getting calls and emails each time from Stephenville residents wanting to cognize erstwhile the daycare mightiness open.

"We needed this daycare yesterday, not tomorrow. People are needing this work now. If the authorities don't velocity things up, we are going to beryllium losing radical successful our community, and possibly adjacent our province," helium said. "Because the services are not here. People privation to spell to work."

While the Education and Early Childhood Development departments wouldn't bash an interrogation with CBC News, Angela Sullivan, a communications director, sent an emailed statement.

"The section cautiously evaluates each submission to guarantee a thorough and just appraisal process. The process considers wide task timelines, commitments to different child-care projects, and semipermanent viability of projects," Sullivan wrote.

There was nary notation of the circumstantial southwest seashore daycare delays.

The Mi'kmaw Cultural Foundation was established implicit a decennary agone to sphere and beforehand the Mi'kmaw civilization successful the province. Members enactment connected community-based programming and absorption mostly connected youth. The extremity is to unfastened a registered Indigenous child-care centre and connection the work and employment accidental wrong the Bay St. George area. 

"They are not recognizing the worth of the programming we privation to offer," said chairperson Ang Brockway.

She says culturally applicable learning for children is ever beneficial.

"We privation them to larn from authentic radical successful our communities who grew up connected the onshore and cognize these things. We are truly committed to offering that benignant of learning and environment."

The Education Department says the authorities is focused connected improving entree to high-quality and affordable kid attraction for families crossed the province, and it's trying to summation spaces to guarantee families person entree to child-care services.

Brockway says her instauration is sick of breached promises and their exertion is precise straightforward with nary requests for caller builds oregon monolithic renovation costs. 

"They person agreed to the reconciliation piece. They person enactment it retired determination that they are acceptable to bash this work. But we are coming up against these barriers that marque america deliberation … are you truly acceptable to bash reconciliation enactment oregon are you relying connected the radical connected the crushed moving to marque everything happen?" Brockway said.

"We could person [a] culturally applicable daycare, which is thing our state is truly lacking."

As for Young, helium is sitting and waiting for authorities officials to telephone truthful helium tin determination connected with the adjacent stage.

He says the enactment has capable wealth reserved to rent the ample gathering until the extremity of the summer.  

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