GUELPH – Wellington County will contribute cash to help cover a shortfall in funding for a planned new Child Care Centre and/or EarlyON Child and Family Centre in Rockwood.
On Feb. 27 county council approved a social services committee recommendation to allocate funding of up to $210,000 for a capital contribution for the Rockwood facility.
The county stipulated the funding will be considered a loan to be secured by a collateral mortgage secondary to existing mortgages and fully repayable if the Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) sells the property or no longer agrees to provide the building or buildings for a facility.
The county also stipulated that additional capital funding provided by the province for the purpose of the capital build for the Rockwood project will be forwarded to the county.
In order to expand licensed child care spaces and EarlyON Child and Family Centres in priority areas, the county’s Children’s Early Years Division partnered with local publicly-funded school boards to make four joint submissions to the Ministry of Education for 100% provincial school-based capital/retro funding grants.
The joint submissions and approvals occurred over a three-year period: 2014-15 (Arthur), 2015-16 (Palmerston) and 2016-17 (Erin and Rockwood) and resulted in 100% provincial dollars to create 160 new child care spaces and two EarlyON Child and Family Centres in Wellington County.
In accordance with the ministry’s “schools first” policy, the school-based capital funds were flowed to the respective school boards for the construction of the capital projects.
In January, the WCDSB notified the Children’s Early Years Division that a recent tender process resulted in the EarlyON Child and Family Centre cost being $250,000 higher than the provincial allocation and that the ministry has denied its request for an increase in provincial funds to address the increased capital costs.
The board has approved provision of $200,000 and requested the county provide the remaining $50,000.
County staff determined that $210,000 in approved funds from the Best Start Reserve and Property Reserve for the Palmerston Child Care Centre would not be needed for that project and could be directed to Rockwood project if needed.
County council agreed to provide up to $210,000, using the remaining funds in the reserves, if needed.
