Markham daycare pleads with city officials for time

With time running out, Markham daycare pleads with city official for lease extension

Thestar.com
Sept. 9, 2015
By Noor Javed

Dressed in bright blue shirts saying “Please Save TLC Daycare,” dozens of parents, children and supporters showed up to Markham council Wednesday morning, pleading with councillors to grant them an emergency extension on the lease for the civic centre daycare, which is set to expire next month.

An extension would allow the TLC, a non-profit daycare opened with public money 25 years ago, to explore alternative locations - and possibly remain open. Otherwise, the centre will shut on Sept. 30, putting 17 staff out of work and taking away 57-child care spots in the city.

“We are already operating at 50 per cent capacity because of the uncertainty, and running at a financial deficit,” said Elise Ho-Foong, a parent and board member for the centre. “We don’t have any children enrolled in October,” she said, adding that the centre will spend next month cleaning up and preparing to vacate.

“The problem is that if we don’t get an extension soon and start enrolling more children, we can’t continue to operate. We will have to close,” she said.

With only half of council present, regional councillor Nirmala Armstrong said council would continue to discuss with staff ways to find a “reasonable resolution.”

“Council has been discussing this ... and we want an outcome that is best for both parties,” she said, without granting the daycare the extension they were hoping for.

Wednesday was a last-ditch effort to appeal directly to the heartstrings of city politicians. A meeting two weeks ago between city officials and daycare staff, along with child-care advocates, seeking a one-year lease extension, was rebuffed.

Since January 2014, the daycare has been told by the city that there was no guarantee that the lease and its highly subsidized rent would be renewed. But the city also promised to help the centre find a new space. This January, the city said it needed more room for the growing city staff and actively began to work with the daycare to find alternatives.

Despite the efforts of both parties, Markham council voted in a closed-door session in April to end discussions.

But there still may be a glimmer of hope, said Ho-Foong. The daycare is in initial stages of discussion with the York Catholic District School Board about a possible relocation to a school.

“The board is now working to see if there might be suitable space for us, but we need a lease extension to assess the financial feasibility, timing implications and to apply for all licences and permits,” said Ho-Foong. “(Time) is the most important variable that we need right now.”

Dennis Flaherty, Markham’s director of corporate communications, who has led the negotiations, says that if the daycare can show the city that it has some “certainty” in regard to the proposal from the Catholic board, it would be willing to grant a lease extension.

“If you look outside, they have already had to sell their playground equipment to try and cover costs; there is no extra time here,” said Carolyn Ferns, the public policy and government relations coordinator with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, who attended the meeting.

“The clock is ticking. We need to have a decision, now, about our future.”