By Chad Ingram

Published July 12 2018

Minden will be getting 23 new licensed daycare spaces after the City of Kawartha Lakes which is the social services provider for the county received funding from the Ministry of Education.

The capital funding up to $750000 will be used for a construction project with the new spaces  to be open by the end of 2020.

At the Compass Early Learning and Care Centre in Minden there will be 10 new infant spaces five new toddler spaces and eight new preschool spaces.

According to a release from the City of Kawartha Lakes city staff found that there are no licensed daycare spaces for 170 infants in Haliburton County and that only 15 per cent of infants toddlers and preschoolers have access to licensed daycare facilities.

A similar project creating 25 new daycare spaces will take place in Bobcaygeon.

“We are excited to assist in the expansion of child care services in Bobcaygeon and Minden” Rod Sutherland director of human services for the City of Kawartha Lakes said in the release. “In reviewing the capital program both of these communities were identified as being in high need of additional child care spaces. We will be working with both providers throughout the process and expect that the new spaces will be open by the end of 2020.”

The funding for the projects is through the ministry’s Community-Based Early Years and Child Care Capital Program.

There was an uproar in Minden in June when it was announced by the board of the Ontario Early Years Centre of Haliburton Victoria Brock that it was closing its daycare facility in Minden leaving scrambling parents a week to find childcare. Ultimately the City of Kawartha Lakes was able to come to an agreement with Compass which took over operation of the facility without any disruption in service.