A Director with the Children’s Circle Daycare Society (CCDC) says Stuart Wood School remains the best temporary location for them to move into.

City councillors voted to not allow any leases at the downtown school until an agreement with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is reached on the future use of the building.

However, James Rodgers is hoping the city will reconsider, now that Tk’emlúps has no objections with the daycare moving into Stuart Wood School downtown.

“We hope it’s still a possibility, we’d hope that the city would see the advantage of opening the space up because there is a crisis right now in the city with childcare,” he said, on NL Newsday. “That space allows us to add 30 more spots to our current roster, which we then transfer over to our new location.”

In the meantime, Rodgers says the daycare society is looking at other temporary locations, but he notes none are as good as Stuart Wood School.

“Some have presented themselves right now but they’re not the best options for us,” Rodgers noted. “It’s a much larger financial hit for us to have to remodel the space set up for six months to a year when that money could be used for the new centre.”

“So that’s our challenge right now and maybe if someone has some creative ideas, they can let us know.”

The daycare has to move out of its current space at Royal Inland Hospital by June because of construction of the Patient Care Tower. They’ve already been granted one extension and it appears a second one won’t be possible.

“Interior Health has been a really good partner to us, but they have constraints that they have to meet,” Rodgers said. “We’re hoping there could be another extension, but we don’t know. People’s hands our tied in situations like this and we understand.”

The daycare’s new location on McMurdo Drive is slated to open in June 2021. The idea was to use Stuart Wood school for one year at a cost of $24,000. Construction on the new location is expected to begin soon.