As the College of New Caledonia wound down its Burns Lake campus family programs at the end of March, it announced Wednesday it would keep the daycare's doors open until the end of June.
"CNC will continue to work with a local not-for-profit society in Burns Lake to ensure daycare services are available in September," said the release, which said the college "identified the budget resources required" to allow for the three-month extension.
The resources refer to one-time funding of $50,000 from the Ministry of Advanced Education, confirmed Matt Partyka, with CNC communications services.
Keeping the daycare open until June means "continuity of care" for the children, said Lakes District Family Enhancement Society's president.
"It is not as disruptive for those children, that's the primary focus. It also means that families can maintain work or school or whatever they're involved in until June," said Cathy Ashurst, adding two directors approached Aboriginal Relations MLA John Rustad for short-term funding.
"The society actually asked for the money to extend the services for the college, on behalf of the college. I don't know if the college even knew we were doing that but we as a community felt that ... for the families and the children at this point it would be good to at least try and maintain the service until the end of June."
The original plan was to close the daycare at the same time as the other family programs on March 31, said Partyka.
"We told Burns Lake that we would try to keep the daycare open if we did not find an agency to take it over in time. That is why the daycare transition has been delayed until June 30; we are still looking for someone to transition it to," Partyka said.
The society hopes to take on the daycare come September, but said that may be dependent on whether any funding is left.
"At this point I have not been able to confirm what the cost will be to maintain the daycare to the end of June, so I have no idea what funding would be available for planning," said Ashurst, who served as the Burns Lake campus' regional director for more than 25 years, and associate regional director for about four years before she left about three years ago.
"September is the question mark. We still don't know what's going to be feasible there."
Without that funding, planning for the future would be difficult, she said.
"It would leave us with a lot more volunteer hours to try and put together the licensing procedures that would have to happen, locating staff, recruiting families."
In its release the college noted the Prince George campus went through a similar process in 2015 with its daycare. In December, the newly-formed society signed a five-year lease agreement with the college to offer the service.
A community hub
In 2014, Ashurst earned the BC Achievement Award for her work at the campus. In a joint release about the award, the college and village called her "a dedicated and inspiring community leader" and praised her "visionary leadership" for helping the Lakes District Campus "become the hub of the community."
With CNC's restructuring and shift away from social programming, two years later Ashurst said that centralized approach is gone.
"The thing that really has been lost is that hub approach to service delivery which was critical for many of the families who are under a lot of duress," she said.
The enhancement society will take on two small programs: the Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) for maternal figures and Hasadeendee, for the partners. Elizabeth Fry Society and the Bulkley Valley Child Development Centre in Smithers are also taking on some of the former CNC contracts. Carrier Sekani Family Services also offers other services to local families.
"It has been up to us to put as many Band-Aids in place as possible to maintain as many services as possible and it's all been on the backs of volunteers which has been really really tricky."
In the daycare press release, CNC President Henry Reiser thanked the Burns lake campus staff for their work during the transition period.
"This has not been an easy process, but it was necessary so that CNC can continue to focus on its core business of offering high quality post-secondary education and training. CNC will also continue to work with community and regional partners to achieve these goals," Reiser said.
The shift to different service providers has not been seamless, Ashurst said, and there are gaps.
The program Healthier Babies Brighter Futures will not be transitioned as Ministry of Children and Family Development is not funding it, Partyka said.
That program was both provincially and nationally recognized as leading edge, Ashurst said and supported high risk women through a combination of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder prevention, intervention and supports.
That translates to a $230,000 loss in funding, she said, with only $40,000 left to support the CPNP, now only offering "very part time services to marginalized women"
The Village of Burns Lake has more than $160,000 to create a rurally-focussed model of post secondary education. In November it asked CNC to partner on that project and heard back March 1 that the board made the decision to "respectfully decline," said a village press release.
"We are excited to seek alternatives to our current post-secondary service provider and to be moving forward with a solution-focussed mindset," said Luke Strimbold, Mayor of Burns Lake, in the March release. "We are confident that we can find an educational organization that will be willing to work with us to rethink rural education models. Until that time, we are still open to a partnership with CNC should they become willing, and we hope that the services they provide in the interim will be an improvement over their current unacceptable model."
