A local out-of-school childcare facility will be closing its doors after 32 years of service.
In an email statement put out by the child-care and community services organization, The Rogers Society said that services would be coming to an end at their Greater Victoria location June 30, after they failed to renew a use agreement for a space they leased from the local school district.
The non-profit child-care organization wrote in the notice that they were devastated and that the closure meant the end of over 60 licensed care spaces.
This news might have parents scrambling, in what the organization calls an already unfolding “child-care crisis.”
“It’s a huge loss for the families that require the child-care,” said Chris Wylie, chairman of the board for the society.
The Rogers Society has been working in and around the Victoria area for over 32 years to provide the community with affordable child-care services, and to act as a community hub that hosts clothing swaps, LGBTQIA support groups and summer camps.
“It’s not ideal, I don’t understand why they can’t talk to us directly about our situation. So, it’ll be interesting to hear what they have to say on Monday,” Wylie added in an interview with CHEK News.
SD61 has not elaborated on why they won’t be renewing their License to Occupy Agreement, but did say they have plans in place for childcare in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.
This comes in the wake of a government fund that began earlier December that saw licensed childcare facility fees drop by up to $550 a month.
READ MORE: Fees in licensed child care in B.C. to drop by up to $550 a month by Dec. 1
SD61 is to host an in-camera board meeting to consider the decision regarding the out of school care provider, Monday, Feb. 6.
“We will have an update for the community following the in-camera meeting,” said Lisa McPhail, SD61 spokesperson to CHEK News in a statement.
Kori Sidaway
