This municipality is among the top priorities in a push by Wellington County’s Children’s Early Years Division to expand the number of licensed child care spaces and support services for families and children in local municipalities.
On May 10, Children’s Early Year’s Division director Luisa Artuso updated Mapleton council on recent developments in family support structures.
“One of major changes that’s happened in child care is there has been a lot of funding that has come to child care and that’s always welcomed and very much needed,” said Artuso.
She explained the province has replaced its Ontario Early Years Centre programs with EarlyON family and child centres. The new centres also replace the Better Beginning Better Futures program, Child Care and Resource Centres and Parenting and Family Literacy Centres.
“The ministry of education thought early years sectors would be closely aligned together because we have to follow the same sort of philosophy in teaching of young children,” Artuso explained.
“Rather than independently contracting out to various agencies to provide those family support programs, they gave them over to the municipalities to sort out and plan for … that is why they changed name to Early Years divisions, because we do family support programs as well as manage the child care centres.”
The division, said Artuso, has a very broad mandate.
“Basically what we need to do is be there for families, whichever way that they need us to be there for them, and whatever it is that they need. We have to be that go-to and go-through place where families with young children come to for any support they require. We also have to provide child-based programing through play groups and drop-in programs for parents,” she said noting division is also tasked with providing families with links to recourse provided either through its own agency or “out there in the community.”
Ensuring the availably of licenced child care spaces in local communities for children, from birth to age four, is among the division’s key mandates.
Data from the 2016 census indicates there are 9,950 children in that age range in the Guelph-Wellington service delivery area, with 1,620 spaces available, enough for 16 per cent of the population. However, many of those are concentrated in Guelph, which has a 1,315 spaces for 5,940 children, a 22% coverage rate. Wellington County, by contrast, has only 305 spaces for 4,010 children, a rate of only 7.5%.
“When you get memos from the ministry, they’re saying across Ontario we’re at 20, we’re going to expand the system so we have 40 – and we’re saying, well, that’s nice but we’re not quite at 20 just yet,” said Artuso.
At 22%, Artuso said, Guelph is doing okay.
“But if you look across the entire Wellington County, we’re only sitting at spaces for 7.5% of our population … and if you drilled that down to each lower tier municipality your looking at zero up to about 10, 10.6%”
County-wide, said Artuso, only Erin and Guelph Eramosa have enough spaces to make them a low-priority for establishing more, while Mapleton and Puslinch are top priorities.
‘Absolutely zero’ spaces
Mapleton, she said, has “absolutely zero” full-time, full-year licensed spaces for roughly 775 children in the birth to age four range and it currently receives no services under the EarlyOn mandate.
Artuso said the Ministry of Education has come up with a capital funding program and is asking municipalities and education boards to work together to provide the spaces, either in existing school buildings or additions, or in new buildings on school property.
“We’re looking at two schools that we would like to put child care centres in: Drayton Heights and Maryborough Public School,” she told council.
“We’re asking them to seriously look at 49 spaces in each one of those two schools, but if one of them … [says] that it’s not possible, we’re saying, well then can we build a child care centre, 64 spaces, into one?
“If we go up to 98 spaces that’s bringing Mapleton up to 7.9% of the population, which still is not anywhere close to 20 per cent as a goal, but it’s a start.”
Artuso said the ministry will also consider applicants for proposals for community-based child care centres.
Such centres, she explained, can’t be attached to a hospital or a school.
“It has to be community space that we’re actually asking to be given to us for a child care centre.”
Artuso noted, “Puslinch and Mapleton are our number one priorities and we’re pretty much not having any discussions about any other schools” until solutions have been identified in those communities.
Next on the priority list, she said, would be communities that have some licensed spaces “but not enough,” such as Centre Wellington, Minto and Wellington North.
With Mapleton identified as a number one priority for both licensed spaces and support services, Artuso said community consultations are being planned for the fall.
The county has hired a consultant, Sage Solutions, which will be conducting community engagement in-person sessions and working with a Toronto-based firm to develop an online survey.
She asked council to appoint a contact person from either council or staff to sit down with the consultant “and tell us the things that you won’t typically know about Mapleton unless you live here.
“We know where schools are, we know where agency services are, but we don’t know that maybe there’s a group of 10 moms that get together at the recreation centre. So those are the little nuggets that we need.”
Once the information is collected an advisory group will be created in each municipality. Council will be asked to provide a representative on the advisory group, which will also be opened up to interested community members.
“Were going to be providing the funds to do the core services, but also coming up with some creative solutions as to how can we support the families outside what it is that we’re mandated to do,” said Artuso.
“The ministry says this is for families with children birth to six. But we know if they don’t have food on the table, if they don’t have a roof over their head or if there are some sort of other challenges that family is facing, how can you ask a parent to be the best that they can be for a child when they have all these other factors?
“So we look at things from a holistic sense and that’s the part that we want to better understand.”
Councillor Michael Martin asked if the new centres would impact the Mapleton Preschool.
“It would still exist. It’s not to replace anything. It’s to build on what exists,” Artuso responded, noting the co-operative would provide different services in some cases.
Mayor Neil Driscoll said, “When you mention there is funding coming from the government I think our council need to know that you are instrumental in getting that funding for the County of Wellington … You’ve done an amazing job just to get this project this far.”
Driscoll, added he appreciates the approach of “letting the community decide what we really need.”
