A daycare centre in Canim Lake was completely renovated and reopened on June 26 to a crowd of dozens, including parents, funding representatives, staff and construction workers.
“It’s been over 40 years the building has been here and it’s was just starting to fall apart. We had flat roofs which leaked every year all the time. Our sewer system, we were calling the sewer people to come and pump it every day because it was so small and wasn’t built for what we needed it for our usage. It had been years since it had been painted, the flooring had never changed. It was just in really rough shape,” says Tami Archie who runs the daycare.
“It was just very unsafe.”
In the past, the building has functioned as a residence and as a store.
Archie says that in March 2016 a proposal call came out from CCATEC (Cariboo Chilcotin Aboriginal Training Employment Centre Society) with another proposal call came from Head Start, noting in her speech that she wasn’t expecting to get the funding.
When in August she heard they would be getting the funding, she said they wanted to make sure there were no further delays in getting the renovations started.
She says they got $400,000 from CCATEC and $117,332 through Head Start.
“Right now, we have 14 full-time students and approximately six to eight full-time after school students,” she says adding they have room for 16 students between the ages of 0 and 5 years old and 22 afterschool children.
Archie couldn’t thank Carl Morton of Carl Morton Construction enough during her speech saying that she was very happy with all the work he had done, as well as the patience he had with her, her staff and the children, who were in the building during the renovations.
“It means a lot. We no longer have to worry about the roof leaking. We now don’t have to worry about playing in weeds. We no longer have to worry about the sewer system backing up or smelling … We don’t have to worry about bats and critters and things like that.”
The building now no longer has a flat roof, it has a grassy fenced yard, with big logs on the outside and a brand new interior.
As the speeches finished and people were invited in to see it for themselves, as well as to grab a bite to eat, dozens more adults and children came to check it out.
The response has been “wonderful. Absolutely amazed. People are amazed at the changes that have happened. Lot’s of people can’t even believe that it’s our centre anymore. People are really happy, really amazed,” says Archie.