The province is funding 112 childcare spaces in Kamloops for Metis children.

The Lee Machif Otipemisiwak Family and Community Services agency will be working with Metis Nation BC to build a new facility.

Executive director Colleen Lucier  says both parties are working to secure a site, which she says will likely be central and close to public transit. The daycare will be calle The Otipemisiwak Centre.

Lucier says the goal is to open in the spring of 2023.

“The goal is, that we’re going to create a Metis-specific childcare centre for children zero to the age of 12, and included in that is a breakfast program and an after-school program,” she says.

“While they are providing childcare spaces which are desperately needed in Kamloops, we also want it to be a very healing place. A place where families feel supported, and where children see themselves reflected in the books, and the toys, and the environment they’re surrounded in.”

She says the new childcare space will cost about $3 million to build.

Today, the province also has announced funding for 24 new childcare spaces in Barriere, at a daycare to be built at a new affordable housing complex in the town core. That daycare will open in the fall of 2022.

Funding for another eight childcare spaces has also been announced for the Bridge River Indian Band, north of Lillooet, where an existing daycare will be renovated and expanded.