Kids Stop Childcare Centre remains closed

Okotoks: Town has list of concerns with new location

Don Patterson/OWW

Okotoks mother Mica Bidulka and her son Dalton stand outside one of Okotoks Kids Stop's two new locations, located beneath the Bull Pen Pub. Bidulka and several other parents are into their fourth week without child care because the facility has not been able to open its doors due to problems with the site identified during an inspection.

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Around 60 youngsters have been displaced for close to a month while their Okotoks daycare tries to get a new location established, but problems with the new facility have the owners of the facility uncertain when they will have a place for the children again.

Toys and play areas are all set up and ready for children in one of two new locations for Okotoks’ Kids Stop Childcare Centre, but the Town has yet to grant the permits necessary to re-open in their new location.

More then three weeks after the scheduled opening day, the centre’s owner and parents are waiting for the Town to give the green light on an occupancy permit for the facility, located on the main floor of the century-old barn housing the Bull Pen Pub.

Owner Joan Gauthier was able to move into the new location on Jan. 15, but subsequent inspections reveled a number of issues needed to be dealt with.

Gauthier said she doesn’t know when she will be able to open the new location because last week she still didn’t have a list of everything that had to be done or whether it will be too expensive to make the new location financially viable. She said she has already spent more than $20,000 on the process.

“It’s going to depend on the engineers and the Town talking to each other because I don’t have this list of things I need to do,” she said.

The facility was located next to the Okotoks Staples and when its lease came up at the end of the year Gauthier was informed it would not be renewed to make room for Staples to expand.

After unsuccessfully searching for a new location in town, Gauthier chose to split the daycare into two locations – one on North Railway Street and the second under the Bull Pen. The Okotoks Municipal Planning Commission approved a development permit for the two locations in December and the North Railway location is open for before and after care for school-aged children.

Gauthier has looked into setting up in temporary locations, but her efforts didn’t succeed due to red tape from municipal and provincial authorities.

“There is not really anywhere in town we can go with more than 60 kids, because we need to be a licensed facility and the land-use bylaw needs to be in place before you can be a licensed facility, plus health approval,” she said.

The move has left 60 children without childcare. While some have been taken in by other day homes, many parents have been struggling to find alternatives for childcare.

Parent Mica Bidulka is frustrated with how long it has taken to get the centre open.

She has one child attending the centre and has had to take time off work and get family to look after her children, as have many other parents affected by the situation.

“I’ve had to call in every favour from family friends,” she said.

During a meeting Jan. 3 with Town officials, Bidulka said the situation is an emergency and the Town needs to treat it as one.

“I’m just hoping it can get fixed and I’m hoping by miracle something happens in the next week,” she said.

Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson said he understands the parents’ frustrations, but he said the Town can’t bend the rules in the safety and building codes, especially since the situation involves a day care.

“I can’t advocate putting children’s safety at risk for the sake of convenience,” he said.

Robertson said town council will discuss the situation and administration will look at ways to help out and find a short-term solution to the space crunch.

“I would certainly be willing to encourage the Town to be flexible on a temporary basis on some of our requirements, in particular zoning bylaws,” he said.

Town communications manager Nancy Weigle said the issues still needing to be resolved are significant and the Town is working closely with all parties involved and it will contact provincial authorities to review potential options.

“At this point we’ll work to see if there’s some creative solutions, but I can’t guarantee a creative solution,” she said.

Weigle said the Town has already worked to expedite the approval process for the centre. She said the development permit application was granted a hearing in front of the MPC sooner than it would normally have and the Town’s safety codes officers have been busy working on the situation.

Any day home or daycare operators with space for children, or anyone interested in setting up a day home, can contact Davindar Bhatia with Child and Family Services at 403-297-7359.