$10M project will expand Mount Saint Vincent child-care centre amid 'tremendous' need
CBC
Melanie Waye has seen what quality child care can do.
Waye's son, Xander, attends the child study centre at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, where he's benefited from the site's inclusion learning support program and the sense of family and community created by staff, she said.
"We feel privileged for the opportunity to have him in such an open, caring and nurturing environment," Waye, who is also a parent rep on the centre's board, said Friday.
"They are rooting for him every step of the way and his achievements are celebrated as team wins."
Waye was on hand for the announcement that more children will soon be able to benefit from that environment.
The university is partnering with the provincial and federal governments on a $10-million expansion for the centre, which will create an additional 82 spaces, up to 32 of which will be dedicated to infants.
The centre currently has 40 spaces, and only serves the age range of 18 months to five years old.
Joël Dickinson, the university's president, said officials have been looking for ways to expand the centre's offerings for about six years.
Along with creating space for more children and diversifying the age range, the new location will also allow for expanded teaching and research opportunities for people already working in the child-care sector and those studying early childhood education, said Dickinson.
"In those teaching spaces, students will be learning from the best of the best."
Dickinson told reporters that the centre has a waitlist of about 90. Those people will have the first chance to get a space when the expansion is ready.
University officials are also looking at the possibility of extended hours to be able to accommodate parents who do shift work. The site's hours right now are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Regardless of what happens with the hours, the new spaces will mean more people need to be hired.
The new centre will be an expansion of a building on campus that once housed the residence of the university president and has since been used for office space.
Winter can be tough to bear. Even more so if you’re homeless.
Two future national First Nations leaders, a deputy premier and a city councillor are among the prominent Manitobans who appear in declassified intelligence files from years of RCMP spying on the Indigenous rights movement in the Cold War era.
Saskatoon city hall administration is planning to "refresh" the funding strategy for the proposed $1.2-billion downtown arena district amid a lack of commitments from higher levels of government.
A report of fraud tied to a walleye derby is under investigation after Montreal Lake Cree Nation said a participant allegedly violated derby rules and was asked to leave the fishing area.
An Edmonton architectural firm says it is in talks with the provincial government to potentially redevelop the former Royal Alberta Museum.
Does junior football have a future in Prince George?
People are descending upon the city for the dozens of events and live music performances this week as the Juno Awards are set to take place Sunday at Hamilton's TD Coliseum.
For nearly two decades, Amanda Loewen's world ended where the pavement did.
The notion that home ownership guarantees financial security in old age is being challenged by a recent survey.
The family of Nash Prystie has identified him as the man who died in an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) shooting earlier this month north of Kenora, and is calling for more and quicker help for people with mental health challenges.
Playoff action in the Ontario Hockey League gets underway Thursday night for Guelph and Friday in Kitchener.
UPEI wants its faculty to sign on to an updated version of its sexual assault and discrimination policy, but the union that represents the school's academic staff says it wants the policies to be part of its collective agreement.
In Texas this week for a global energy conference, the federal natural resources minister is proclaiming "Canada is back" and ready to bolster its energy sector and grow exports.