Victoria is looking for a consultant to help draft a 10-year plan for how the city can facilitate creation of more child-care spaces in the city.
“I think there’s definitely a role for local government within our own jurisdiction for making it easier to open more child-care spaces,” said Mayor Lisa Helps, noting the city can help with issues such as parking requirements or zoning provisions.
“There are all sorts of things that are really within the city’s toolbox to make it much easier for child cares to open.”
The project budget is $25,000. It’s funded through a Union of B.C. Municipalities grant.
The action plan will position the city to recommend initiatives when provincial money for child-care initiatives becomes available, Helps said.
“The province actually expects municipalities to do this work and those, I think, that actually do the work will have better chances of getting funding,” she said.
The request for offer document says the goal of the action plan is to identify space-creation targets over the next decade, which will help inform future investments.
The work will include compiling an inventory of child-care spaces and staffing in Victoria, and assessing the need, including looking at whether current spaces are meeting the needs of under-served populations.
It also involves a review of local plans, bylaws and policies to identify potential barriers to space creation.
The work is scheduled to begin in August, with the action-plan report due in December.
