At its meeting on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, Lethbridge City Council voted to direct Administration to complete a childcare needs assessment. (File photo: LNN)

By Justin Goulet

City of Lethbridge to assess local childcare needs

Oct 31, 2023 | 4:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The City of Lethbridge is taking steps to incentivize the development of new childcare spaces in the community.

At its meeting on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, Lethbridge City Council voted to direct Administration to complete a childcare needs assessment.

The assessment will focus on the current childcare landscape in Lethbridge and will result in recommendations on how to address challenges related to boosting the number of spaces in the city.

Additionally, council voted to approve the allocation of up to $25,000 from Council Contingencies to find consulting resources to support the development of the outline childcare needs assessment.

City councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel introduced the Official Business Motion (OBM) to council.

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She said, “Council is committed to encouraging and attracting additional childcare spaces throughout the community to promote social and economic vibrancy.”

Schmidt-Rempel added, “Increasing the availability of childcare spaces in Lethbridge is critical to supporting working parents and stimulating economic growth by allowing more individuals to participate in the labour force, as well as educational and English Language Learning (ELL) opportunities.”

She said that the importance of childcare was brought to her attention almost a year ago while doing work with the Ukrainian Task Force, “and local individuals telling me that women couldn’t get to ELL classes because of a lack of childcare opportunities, so then I explored further from there”.

READ MORE: Lethbridge City Councillor named to Premier’s Advisory Task Force on Ukraine

While family and social supports fall under the jurisdiction of the province, a report generated by City of Lethbridge Administration identified a gap of roughly 600 childcare spaces in the community as of 2023.

Logan Bartholow, Project Planning Lead, said, “Having adequate childcare coverage is critical to the success of any community and with council’s direction and allocated funding, Administration now has the means to explore how the City [of Lethbridge] can incentivize the creation of more spaces.”

“In the coming months, we will be collaborating with community stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of the current childcare situation in Lethbridge and will then be returning to council in the new year with recommendations and strategies to tackle our community’s unique challenges.”

As part of the OBM brought forward by Schmidt-Rempel, Administration will have to report back to council by the second quarter of 2024.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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