Expanded Childcare Facilities

Nanaimo has significant childcare capacity, but the available hours do not always match the shifts of the people who need childcare most. A nurse starting a shift at 7 AM, a first responder on a rotating schedule, a ferry worker covering a busy long weekend. They all rely on childcare arrangements that the standard Monday to Friday model does not cover. The next council can address this problem directly, by directing staff to coordinate with existing providers or by expanding the current city offerings through the Parks, Recreation & Culture department. When skilled professionals are selecting a community to call home, raising a family is a key consideration. We need a city council that is responsive to families' needs, so that responsiveness can be promoted as part of a wider recruitment and retention strategy for all professions, and especially for healthcare providers.

Commitments

Pilot an expanded-hours childcare program from 6 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week. Publicly subsidized, with location and marketing focused on healthcare shift workers though open to all families. The exact number of spaces and the phasing across the four-year term depend on uptake and availability, but the pilot needs to be large enough to be a meaningful test rather than a token gesture.

Deliver the pilot through cooperation with existing providers where a subsidy makes expanded hours viable. Where existing providers cannot or will not extend, the pilot can be delivered directly through the Parks, Recreation & Culture department. Both routes are on the table, and the pilot's design should not commit to one before the operator conversations have happened. The incentive is a modest subsidy to willing existing operators, with direct delivery as the alternative.

Use every indirect municipal lever available. Zoning that allows childcare facilities in more locations, especially in proximity to the regional hospital. City-owned land contributions where a site suits an extended-hours childcare facility. Permitting fee waivers for licensed childcare development. These are the tools council directly holds, and they should be applied in support of the expanded-hours pilot, since lack of access to childcare is a major reason some parents struggle to re-enter the workforce.

Align the pilot with the provincial $10-a-day childcare program where the eligibility rules allow. The provincial program is a positive step, and it excludes many parents whose incomes or work arrangements fall outside its rules. The municipal pilot is intended to complement the provincial program, not to replace it, and its subsidy structure should be designed to reach the families the provincial rules currently miss.

Partner with School District 68 for before-and-after school care. Working families with school-age children face the same shift-work versus school-schedule mismatch, and the school district holds the physical space, the staff, and the safeguarding capacity a municipal partnership can build on. Council's role is to be the party that opens the conversation, and to fund the municipal share of any pilot that emerges.

Anchor the pilot around shift-worker families while keeping it open to all. The locations, the hours, and the marketing focus on healthcare shift workers because that is the workforce Nanaimo's healthcare vision depends on retaining. Any family that meets the eligibility criteria is welcome. A childcare program that fits nursing shifts likely fits a first responder's or a ferry worker's, and the design should not exclude families whose work does not carry the same profile.