Parents ask city to extend Markham daycare lease
Ample notice provided, says city

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 13, 2015
Laura Finney

Regan Breadmore was not surprised when she received a termination notice a few weeks ago.

“We knew that it was coming,” she said. “But we were hoping the city would not do this to us.”

Breadmore has worked at Town’s Little Children (TLC) Daycare for more than two decades, but in October the daycare’s lease at the Civic Centre will be up. It will not be renewed because the city needs the space.

“I don’t consider it a job. It’s more like family,” said Breadmore. “It’s going to be really, really hard.”

Anna Iacono, director of TLC, agreed.

“That was a bad day,” she said about handing out the termination notices, stating they currently employ 18 people including part time and substitute staff.

The non-profit daycare has been running out of the Markham Civic Centre for 25 years, but unless another location can be found, Markham will lose 57 spots — what parents call “high quality daycare spaces”.

Knowing that their lease was about to expire, TLC first reached out to the city in June of 2013 and discussions began between the city and TLC in the summer of 2014.

The daycare, which pays below market rent for its space, believed they would be able to stay, although at a fair market rate.

But according to the city, daycare operators were told the city could not commit to a new lease until it had assessed its own needs for space, and in January of this year, the daycare was officially notified it would not be able to stay.

The city has said the aim is not to get rid of the daycare, and work began with TLC to find a new location.

City representatives said if TLC can find an alternate space before the lease is up, they will consider a lease extension to help with the transition.

UNABLE TO FIND NEW LOCATION

But so far, the daycare has been unable to find a new location.

Staff members and parents have said they remain optimistic. According to a statement from the board of directors, they are asking the city to let them stay a little longer.

Iacono is asking for a year.

“All we need right now is some time,” she said. “An extension, so my parents can transition either to our new place that we hopefully find, or to another daycare in realistic time.”  

But according to a media backgrounder sheet provided by Dennis Flaherty, director of communications and community engagement at the city, the daycare had time.

“Given there was no provision for renewal of the 25-year lease, and the city’s discussions with TLC as early as July 2014, TLC has had almost 15 months notice that they did not have a firm commitment to a new lease for the premises,” it said.

According to a notice on the daycare’s door, if they can’t find a new space soon, they will have to “end operations by Sept. 30.”

This has left a lot of parents in the lurch, says daycare representatives.

“Scrambling to get daycare in less than a month is very difficult,” said Breadmore, noting some places do not have infant care and some have long wait lists.

On Tuesday, a group of parents held a press conference to highlight the work they have done to find a solution and to share concerns.

Many spoke of the importance of high-quality licensed child care in the community and how much they want the daycare to continue to operate.

“There is a crying need for childcare in Markham. York Region has one of the fastest growing child populations in all of Canada,” said Carolyn Ferns, public policy and government relations coordinator with Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, who was an invited speaker at the media event. “So losing a childcare like TLC daycare is not an option.”

She said she was shocked when she heard the city was not renewing the lease.

She remarked that TLC has done a lot of work toward securing a location – and that the work was done by a parent-run volunteer board of directors and “an overworked childcare director”.

Several questions were raised by parents this week, including why the city would spend money to renovate childcare space when office space is easy to find.

“I want to see the numbers — I want to see the figures, how much will it cost to renovate and gut this space that is built for childcare,” said a parent. “How expensive is it for me, as a taxpayer, to change this space to an office?”

Ferns agreed.

“It’s really hard to move a childcare centre, it’s fairly easy to find office space,” she said. “Losing a purpose built childcare centre in favour of office spaces, it just doesn’t make sense … I don’t think the people of Markham would think it’s a good use of taxpayer money.”

WILLING TO PAY HIGHER RENT

The city was not invited to the press conference, so was unable to respond to parent questions.

But staff has previously said they wanted to use the city owned space at the civic centre for its growing needs, instead of purchasing or renting property at taxpayer expense.

However, Ferns said the daycare would be willing to pay more in rent money, providing more income for the city.

Many parents and staff were also frustrated with the way the city has handled things in recent months.

Daycare operators said they were told not to tell parents to speak with councillors while negations for another city owned property was going on. They also said the city issued a cease and desist notice to a parent who started an online petition about the daycare.

Parents said they were unable to speak council members or the mayor and were instead told to go through Flaherty.

“We have tried to reach out to others, we’ve tried everything ... No response from local councillors, regional councillors. It’s been silent,” said one of the parents.

“All we want is to speak to a decision maker at the city,” said another. “We don’t want to talk to corporate communications. Come to the negotiating table and talk to us.”  

Flaherty was unable to reply by press time, but the city’s media backgrounder said Markham does recognize the importance of childcare, and has “extended significant goodwill and direct financial subsidy to TLC over the past 25 years.”

While TLC was at the Civic Centre they paid $200 a month, which was well below market rates, it said, and it noted TLC also did not have to pay operating expenses until 2003.

The daycare is continuing to look for more space. So far their biggest challenge has been finding a location with enough outdoor space. Anyone with a potential site is asked to call the director at 905-479-7781.