Is it time for employees at Port Moody city hall to get their own daycare?
The city’s mayor thinks so.
Tuesday (May 9), council will consider a motion by Mayor Meghan Lahti calling for staff to report back on the viability of establishing a daycare facility at the nearby recreation centre to be used by city hall employees and possibly members of the general public.
Lahti said such a facility would be a significant benefit for city hall employees as well as the employer.
“It not only signals that the employer values its employees, it provides parents with an option for daycare that is often fraught with anxiety, given the lack of daycare spaces available in the region.”
In a report, Lahti said Port Moody is underserved with daycare, with only 20.9 spaces available per 100 children. Many of those, she added, are not affordable.
Lahti said a new daycare for city hall employees would help address the need for more than 1,000 new daycare spaces to be created in the city over the next 10 years, as well as provide an incentive to attract top employees to Port Moody.
“Offering childcare today could set Port Moody up for attracting the best talent in the future,” she said. “Having an on-site childcare centre is a huge plus from an employee satisfaction perspective.”
In her report, Lahti didn’t provide a cost estimate for starting a daycare. But according to the website freshbooks.com, building a daycare from scratch in Canada can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000, even before hiring qualified staff.
Lahti said making some of the spaces available for public use could “provide a small revenue for the city.”
SOUND OFF: What do you think, should Port Moody have its own daycare facility for use by city hall employees? Send us a letter to the editor. Be sure to include your full name and city of residence.
