City looks at ‘winding down’ municipal daycare

A staff report expected in January will outline the best way for the city to wind down its 120-space daycare located in the downtown YMCA building.

At a community services committee meeting Dec. 3, councillors were told the Junior Citizens Daycare will cost taxpayers about $129,000 in 2013.

The primary reason is the 22 staff at the daycare – 10 full time, 12 part time – are unionized city workers, so wage and benefit costs are about 50 per cent higher than for staff at non-profit daycares.

First opened in 1972, the centre initially catered to special needs children. It became a full daycare in 1977, operated side-by-side with a Francophone daycare. It moved into the new YMCA building in 2000, and has a lease to rent 6,000 square feet of space until 2015.

It’s the only daycare in Greater Sudbury that offers parents services until midnight five days a week.

Ward 5 Coun. Ron Dupuis said $129,000 may not seem like much, but as the recent budget process showed, councillors debate over where to spend every dollar.

“It may not seem like a lot out of a $500-million budget, but again, we’re subsidizing each child about $1,000 a year,” Dupuis said. “These are tough decisions that we’re going to have to make.

“What if we were to just give notice that effective 2015, we are getting out of the daycare business at that particular location? Then we could continue taking enrolment, but people would be aware that, two years from now, it’s closing.”

The staff report on the daycare said other organizations – including the City of Peel and, closer to home, Cambrian College – have closed their daycare centres. Toronto is also reviewing its daycare operations.

If council decides to close the daycare, staff suggested it be phased in gradually by not taking in any more children.

That way it would be least disruptive to the families who use the centre, and it would make it easier to deal with collective agreements that give staff at the centre bumping rights.

Committee chair and Ward 10 Coun. Frances Caldarelli said it’s unfortunate the city is in this position, especially since the city daycare is the only one that operates until midnight.

“But when we’re losing money on it, we have to look at fixing it,” she said.

Ward 11 Coun. Terry Kett said the committee shouldn’t wait long to make a decision, because the longer they drag it out, the harder it will be on families and staff at the centre.

“It won’t do any good to put this decision off, madam chair,” Kett said. “Seems to me we’re talking about stopping taking admissions and to close this by 2015 … We need to give these people a chance to move on. It’s only fair.”

“I think staff understands that we’re saying this needs to be wound down,” Cadarelli said.

She asked staff for a report outlining the best way to close the program and was told such a report could be ready by January.

“And then we will move forward and do it,” she said.

Catherine Matheson, the city’s general manager of community development, said a report can be prepared by then detailing different options for winding down the daycare.

“We could provide some projections on what kind of numbers would be expected by 2015,” she said.