THUNDER BAY - The provincial government announced childcare centres across Ontario will be permitted to reopen on Friday, but in Thunder Bay, parents will have to wait a little longer before centres become fully operational again.
The announcement was made on Tuesday that all childcare centres that are able to do so can reopen on Friday, June 12. This follows the announcement that specific regions in the province can enter phase two of reopening.
Andrea Morrison, manager central support Community Services with the city of Thunder Bay, said the guidelines only became available on Tuesday for what reopening will look like and it will take some time to prepare.
“At this point, we are waiting for our local DSSAB, school boards, and health unit to inform the process for reopening in this new phase of childcare,” she said. “We expect it to be similar to the measures for emergency childcare.”
The city has been operating one emergency childcare centre for essential workers out of its Algoma location.
The guidelines set out by the province for childcare centres include limiting the number of staff and children to under 10 in specific areas of facilities, increased cleaning, no visitors, screening of staff and children, and special drop-off and pickup protocols.
“Hopefully we can do so seamlessly,” Morrison said. “We’ve been able to do the emergency childcare piece and it does help inform this process as well.”
When childcare centres will actually be able to open has not been determined yet, Morrison said, because more guidance is still needed.
“It will take a bit of time to even get staff back in,” she said. “Emergency childcare is to be phased out by June 26, so we still have that operating for our centres, which does use a lot of resources. It won’t happen right away. We will be in touch with our childcare families who typically attend our centres.”
A survey was sent to families who utilize city childcare services and according to the results, there is a high demand for these services to resume operations.
“We have heard from a lot of families that they are requiring care,” Morrison said.
Based on the demand and the limit on how many children can share a space, Morrison said there might be a need to prioritize spaces.
“We will try to do this in an equitable way and a consistent approach hopefully community wide will be used,” she said.
With more businesses and services expected to reopen on Friday, there will be a demand for childcare services as more people return to work.
“I think it’s definitely connected,” Morrison said. “You can’t really reopen fully without having the childcare for the families. I understand why it wasn’t at the outset, because people were hesitant to send their kids because there was an illness.”
Morrison added that when things do reopen, the staff will be prepared and all health and safety protocols will be followed.
“We’ve had lots of training, lots of resources, the health unit, DSSAB and all our community supports have been great and provided the information,” she said. “We are optimistic for what it will look like in the future.”
The city operates four municipal childcare centres and coordinates private childcare licenses.
