Dalhousie University has taken out a membership with Kids & Company, a child-care company opening one, perhaps two centres, in Halifax.
On Tuesday, representatives from Kids & Company held an information session in the Dal SUB. More than 50 people turned out to the “Lunch ‘n’ Learn,” with plenty of questions for facilitator Sharon Shoolman and company founder Victoria Sopik.
Kids & Company describes its business model as a "corporate daycare service." It only sells child care spaces to employees of its member corporations or organizations, who are guaranteed a spot for their child.
Dalhousie is one of several groups to buy into the new-to-Halifax company. Others include the law firm Stewart, McKelvey, Stirling & Scales, marketing company the Extreme Group and the IT firm GenieKnows.
“We thought it was a good idea because there’s such pent-up demand for daycare and limited options for parents,” says Katherine Sheehan, Dalhousie's assistant vice-president, human resources, who attended the lunch-time session.
“We’re interested, of course, because daycare is a very real issue on campus right now,” she continued. “As an employer, it’s a problem if our people are struggling to find care.”
With 25 centres in Canada, Kids & Company hopes to open the doors at its first centre in Atlantic Canada by the end of next month. The centre at 3260 Barrington Street will serve approximately 100 to 120 children whose parents work at Dalhousie or the other corporate members. Registration for spaces is now being accepted at Kids & Company’s website.
Ms. Sopik added she’s also investigating a second location for Kids & Company, this one on University Avenue.
“With Dalhousie as a corporate partner, our services are guaranteed. If you register, your child is guaranteed a spot for full or part-time care,” said Ms. Shoolman.
Kids & Company offers full- or part-time care by qualified early childhood educators for newborn babies up to six-year-old children at government-regulated staff/child ratios. The new centre will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and will not charge late fees. Kids & Company has webcams at each of its centres, offering parents a glimpse of their children and caregivers via the Internet.
Other services include emergency backup, for those days when other arrangements fall through, and a nanny-matching service. The emergency backup service, which generated a lot of interest among parents at the session, costs $350 and covers up to 15 visits.
When one person said the centres “sounded too good to be true,” Ms. Sopik, a mother of eight children, said Kids & Company has hit on the recipe for its “special sauce.” “We’ve been attentive to our parents’ needs, and basically, we’ve just figured it out,” she said, adding that she’s been “overwhelmed” by the numbers of parents who need childcare in Halifax.
Also attending the session was Alison Thompson, associate professor with the Department of Chemistry. Last fall, Dr. Thompson initiated an action group on daycare to press for more child-care spaces on campus. Waiting lists for spaces at the University Children’s Centre, a non-profit daycare on the Dalhousie campus, are extremely lengthy.
“Parents have to investigate and make their own choices, but I think it’s wonderful we have this opportunity,” she said.
In a news release issued yesterday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees called Kids & Company a “big box day-care chain” and said it represents a “major step backwards for the sector.”
"We do not want to see a large, Ontario-based corporation moving into Nova Scotia to make millions of dollars from providing more for-profit child care,” said CUPE Nova Scotia President Danny Cavanagh.
Child-care workers at several of Kids & Company’s Ontario centres belong to the CUPE union, said Ms. Sopik.