Ten families are scrambling after the province suspended license approval for a daycare in their community.
Molly Rogers, co-owner and operator of the Fall River Child Care Centre, said their current license only covers before- and after-school programing.
Rogers said they were working with Department of Education and Early Childhood Development officials to retool their program for younger kids when the province suddenly backtracked.
“There’s a demand for this age group,” she said. “That’s why we made the switch, with the recommendation from the department, to lower our age group and meet that demand.”
Those younger kids had made up 85% of their enrollment.
Rogers said she was blindsided when officials told her, on Nov 5, the license approval had been suspended.
The province told her the license freeze came into effect ahead of $10 a day childcare, however that program isn’t slated to be in place until 2026.
Rogers said officials suggested the freeze would last six months, but that’s not a guarantee.
She said that doesn’t help her anyway, the daycare will have to shut down within a week or two if they don’t get their new license.
“They are just going back on their good faith, and their word, and their verbal communication to us that this was going to go through,” she said. “We want our license to operate.”
