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Child care providers happy about CBT funding

Local child care providers are happy after the Columbia Basin Trust announced a new program.
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CBT has announced funding for child care inthe region. (Black Press file)

Local child care providers are happy after the Columbia Basin Trust announced a new program to support child care in the Basin last week.

Last Monday, the trust announced that it is launching a $3.6-million Child Care Support Program to provide capital grants, training support and a program advisor over the next three years.

Ketna Makwana, the manager at the Golden Bear Children’s Centre, was happy to hear the announcement.

“It’s something that educators have been striving towards for a number of years now. We’ve been requesting it, we’ve been arguing about it, that we need more funding to open up more childcare spaces. Here there’s a huge demand and lack of,” she said.

Makwana said that the training support is “a huge thing,” providing recognition for Early Childhood Educators (ECEs).

“And providing them with an incentive to further within their field and to obtain higher qualifications,” she said.

Golden Bear has received support from the trust over the past two years to renovate its playground and to renovate its infant-toddler washroom.

“To have more child-sized wash basins and toilets installed,” explained Makwana.

But there are still more renovations that Golden Bear is hoping to do to the building, so the trust’s announcement that there will be more capital funding available is very welcome.

“Hopefully next year if we can put in a proposal to CBT again to support us, we’re trying to blow out one of our walls in order to create more spaces for the centre,” said Makwana.