The Westlock Child Care Society has formally requested the Town of Westlock to transfer ownership of the Westlock Child Care Centre to the society.
The request is the accumulation of several months of discussions between the town and the society about its options. The society has operated out of the building located at 10804 101 St. for the past 35 years and under the current lease agreement, the town owns the property but the society is on the hook for building repairs and improvements.
“We believe that this could improve the viability of our organization,” executive director Christine Villeneuve told town council at its Feb. 13 meeting. “It would help our board effectively plan for our short and long term goals.”
In a later interview Villeneuve said that the society is looking five to 10 years down the road and as its membership continues to increase, it may need to move to a larger building. Having the current facility on the society’s books as an asset would make selling and moving to a new building easier.
“We cover all of costs and have for many years,” she said. “If we were to have ownership, we would be able to move or renovate or do a number of things we could not do currently.”
The society also requested that if the transfer of ownership goes through that the town waive property taxes associated with the building, essentially continuing the society’s current tax exemption.
Villeneuve added that the society had already spent $46,500 in improvements to the building in the last two years, including installing new windows, replacing the siding and shingles and painting the interior.
The Westlock Child Care Society offers daycare, after-school care and family day home services to the community. The centre was build in 1980 and declared rent free in 1990.
Additions to the original structure were completed in 1984, 1997 and 2005, while the value of the property was assessed at $361,570 in 2016.
Westlock Child Care Society board member Sarah Hayward supports the project.
“The society has a really strong history, it’s been around for much longer than most child care societies,” she said. “It adds a huge economic benefit to the community. Young families seek out quality child care as much as they seek out good schools these days and that’s what leads to the growth of the community.”
Coun. Murtaza Jamaly expressed his support for the idea, noting that the society had recently applied for a pilot program to deliver $25-a-day daycare.
“The board has come a long way in developing a very viable child care society,” he said. “In addition, the child care society recently applied to the provincial government for a grant that would enable cost-effective child care provisioning in our community.”
Villeneuve added that she was told that she would have an answer about the grant in March.
Council took the presentation as information and approved a motion to investigate how the request can be fulfilled.
