The effort to address a shortage of child care spaces in Petrolia continues.
Town council approved several recommendations from staff at its recent meeting.
Chief Administrative Officer/Treasurer Rick Charlebois said council has asked staff to approach the province and ask the Minister of Education to allow before and after school spots at licensed home-based child care sites.
"Right now they have the ability to have six children, who are full-time and part-time, so we're recommending that the licensed home child care operators be given the authority to have six as well as two [more children] before and after school," said Charlebois. "If someone has kids that are actually in school now and need before and after school [care], it's a real challenge for them to find daycare."
Other recommendations hope to attract more early childhood educators and sites for them to operate in.
"We're recommending that the Minister of Education review the current salary for early childhood educators and also we're going to recommend that the province provide more capital based funding for the construction of new centre based facilities," he said.
A push was made earlier this year for a municipally run daycare, but Charlebois said it doesn't appear to be financially feasible.
"There are no municipally run child care facilities in Lambton County and we've estimated that, just to operate it, there would be about a $300,000 per-year annual deficit. So what would probably happen, if the county or private sector were to build it, they would get a not-for-profit to operate it," Charlebois said.
He said the County of Lambton is leading the charge to improve access to child care across Sarnia-Lambton.
Council is asking that its recommendations be implemented by September.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced an additional $625 million to help public and not-for-profit child care providers fund the infrastructure needed to create more child care spaces.
