Huron County is investing money toward its goal of creating an additional 175 child care spaces by 2026.
County council approved providing $300,000 in start-up support to Early Years Education System (EYES). The for-profit franchise child care operator wants to create a centre in Goderich with 88 child care spaces available.
On Wednesday, council received a report from Cheryl Patience, Manager of Children's Services, noting that EYES still has to get licensed with the Ministry of Education before they can enter into a service agreement with the county.
Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet said it was still welcome news.
"The timing of this report couldn't be any better," he told council. "Over the past five days, I've received three phone calls from frustrated parents in the Town of Goderich alone, with the lack of daycare we're able to provide. Unfortunately, it might take a year before they receive their licence, but I'm happy to see we are looking at other avenues to provide daycare for people."
As part of the framework outlined by the Ministry of Education, Huron County had to identify "priority communities" to target for child care. Goderich was one. Clinton, Exeter, and remote underserved regions, such as Howick were also named in the report.
Patience says they reached out to local child care providers about start-up grants in case they were looking to expand, but so far, they only heard from the out of region EYES.
"They have expressed some potential interest in future growth in some of those other targeted areas," said Patience. "However at this point, we're starting slow because they would be a new provider with us, so taking a cautious approach in that growth at this time."
EYES currently has over 25 locations across Ontario, but none in Huron, Perth, Bruce or Grey Counties.