Port Coquitlam is about to get a big boost to its childcare target.
On Tuesday, May 14, the city’s committee of council unanimously greenlighted an environmental conservation development permit for a new childcare building at the elementary campus of BC Christian Academy.
The two-storey centre — with seven classrooms for 144 kids, including for infants, toddlers, and students in need of before- and after-school care — will go up at the southeastern corner of the school site at 1019 Fernwood Ave.
The school’s 9.4-acre lot is next to the Hyde Creek Nature Reserve and mostly surrounded by single-family residential homes.
The 10,118 sq. ft. building will be run by the Kids Club that’s currently on site, city planners say.
And the new structure will be environmentally friendly with green measures for energy and water conservation, and greenhouse gas reductions.
Mayor Brad West said the permit “is the only thing council can consider right now” as the land is designated in the Official Community Plan (OCP) for school use and is zoned P-1 Civic Institution, which allows for schools and childcare facilities.
The 144 spots bodes well for the city’s Child Care Action Plan that was adopted in 2021 and recommends 145 more childcare places per year in PoCo.
The Action Plan calls for the city to add 731 more spaces by 2025 and 1,139 new spaces by 2030; by the city’s count, it had 2,425 licensed spaces in mid 2022.
BC Christian Academy has its middle school campus at 2329 Fremont Conn. in PoCo, as well as a high school at 3000 Christmas Way in Coquitlam.
New Spaces Fund
Meanwhile, today, May 16, the provincial government opened its 2024–25 intake for the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund.
Since it started in 2018, the Fund has paid for more than 37,000 new licensed childcare spaces around B.C.
The deadline to apply is Aug. 2, 2024.
