After seven months of negotiations, members and leadership of the Kenora District Services Board, Municipality of Sioux Lookout and Canadian Union of Public Employees have come to an agreement to keep childcare services running in Sioux Lookout.
“As a Board, we felt it was imperative to be open in moving forward with all parties involved, as child care and early years programming is the cornerstone for positive child and family engagement, and resiliency in our communities,” says Barry Baltessen, Board Chair of the KDSB.
The KDSB says they will begin operations of the community’s Early Years and Childcare programs by April 4, after bringing on childcare staff from the Municipality on April 1.
“We look forward to welcoming Sioux Lookout child care staff to the KDSB. We thank them for their passion and commitment to instilling lifelong learning and well-being in the community’s children and families,” adds Baltessen.
Municipal childcare services were originally set to end by March 31 in Sioux Lookout after the first round of negotiations between the KDSB, the Municipality and 18 local childcare workers.
The KDSB was set to take over childcare programming by January 1, 2022, but the union representing childcare workers with the Municipality, CUPE, filed a motion against the transfer of services. That motion delayed the deal for months, later causing the KDSB to back out of the deal in late January.
They said their issue with the move was that workers would lose their rights like seniority and sick leave that they had previously negotiated for with the union. They had also shared concerns about the union they would have transferred over to at the KDSB.
In the months following, leaders of the Local 2141 union of CUPE, the KDSB and the Municipality continued negotiations to find a permanent solution for the community, resulting in the new deal announced March 22.
The Municipality and KDSB announced the original transfer of services back on September 1, 2021.
Moving forward, the KDSB says they plan to ensure that all 109 children on the current wait-list for childcare services in Sioux Lookout will have access to a space by September 1, after the creation of JK/SK before and after-school programming in the community.
In a previous interview on the situation with Q104 and DrydenNow, Chief Administrative Officer with the KDSB, Henry Wall, had proposed a regional staffing approach to help operate the additional childcare spaces, once they’re built.
Childcare spaces currently exist at the Biidaban Children's Centre, Sioux Mountain Public School and Sacred Heart School. Renovations to the Sioux Mountain Children’s Centre took place in 2018, at a cost of just under $2 million.