Parents in Mount Pleasant concerned as future of childcare facilities unclear

As strides are being made to provide more childcare facilities in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, development proposals are leaving parents both hopeful and concerned.

One space that has been the subject of expansion efforts for years is Britannia Community Centre.

Britannia’s planning and development committee says the space is home to facilities for residents of all ages.

“Britannia’s an integrated site. It has a seniors’ centre, a teen centre, a pool and a rink, a school, and a library,” said Craig Ollenberger, the committee’s renewal advisor.

“So the intention is to bring all that together to see a real mingling of different ages and interests and bring community together in one space.”

The centre hosts a preschool and after-school care, and its long-term renewal plan includes a new 0-to-5 childcare facility.

But it has been over seven years since the redevelopment’s master plan was approved, and the space still lacks funding, a timeline, or rezoning efforts.

This has left expansion efforts in limbo.

“This neighbourhood has a really big childcare deficit, and that centre with 0-to-5 care would be really good for the community,” Ollenberger said.

A few minutes away, Britannia’s second location on East 7th will shut its doors in March. Plans for a six-storey social housing building on the property will include a new 37-space childcare facility, but it wouldn’t be operational until 2028.

Parents say they’ll have nowhere to go for childcare after the closure.

“At this point, we don’t have an alternative,” said parent Pam Corrigal.

“We’ll reach out to family or have to go private. We have no further options at this point.”

The city says it has tried to find temporary and permanent relocation options for the centre while the site is being redeveloped, but it hasn’t been able to identify any nearby possibilities yet.
For many parents, this means turning to private options with higher costs.

“We had a part-time nanny for close to two days a week,” said Corrigal.

“It was around $2,000 a month.”

If funding for the project is approved, site work will begin in three months, causing parents uncertainty about where their kids will be in the fall.