CHAT News File Photo

By Alex McCuaig

Stage One reopening

Childcare part of reopening strategy but spaces needed

May 1, 2020 | 4:37 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – As more businesses start to reopen or increase what they can offer, childcare will also be needed to help get workers back to their jobs as school will remain closed to regular classes until at least September.

The city’s largest childcare provider, the Medicine Hat YMCA, hopes to aid in that effort but details of how, where and when still need to be figured out, according to CEO Sharon Hayward.

Hayward says the Y expects there will be requirements to reduce the numbers of children who will be allowed to be together and increased need for cleaning but, “another challenge for us is we ran our programs out of our recreation facilities or in schools and, at this point, those facilities, overall, are all still closed.”

She added, “we would love to get back to both childcare and our summer camp programs – that’s our goal. We just can’t make any decisions or announcements yet until we get more specifics from the government on what types of restrictions it will involve.”

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One of the programs the Y was hoping to announce but was sidetracked by the pandemic was licenced childcare daycamps. That program would allow for parents eligible for the childcare subsidy also use it for the Y’s day camps.

“It was going to increase licenced childcare spots in the summer for that age group by 80 per cent at a minimum with a capacity for us to go as high as a 200 per cent increase, depending on demand,” said Hayward. “That’s still our goal. Again, those programs are slated to run out of schools.”

Medicine Hat Catholic board superintendent Dwayne Zarichny said schools won’t be coming back this spring and, while summer schools are an option under the province’s stage one reopening, “our jurisdiction typically hasn’t done summer school with the exception of work experience.

“At this point, work experience probably wouldn’t continue just because we can’t guarantee that the businesses that students would typically be working in would be able to accommodate them,” Zarichny added.

He added Catholic schools will continue to offer online courses and praised educators for their efforts.

“I’m exceptionally proud of all our staff as to how quickly they have adapted to an online learning platform,” said Zarichny.