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Oak Bay council reviewing private daycare bylaw

The district will decide if they allow daycares to operate out of an auxilliary building or not.
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Tobi Blue owns and operates a private daycare in Oak Bay. She hopes council will re-consider daycare bylaws. (Octavian Lacatusu/Oak Bay News)

Oak Bay council will review a bylaw that could allow private daycares in Oak Bay to function from an auxiliary building other than their own place of residence.

Currently, the bylaw in Oak Bay limits licensed private daycares to only operating from a private residence (as a home-based business) with a maximum of eight children.

Things are in motion, however.

In May this year, some local private daycare operators approached Oak Bay council to take a second look at the bylaw and allow them to use an existing auxiliary building on the same property. A review of the bylaw began, gathering positive support from mayor and council.

“What we’re planning to do is review the bylaw, consult with the community as to what, if any changes be made to permit auxiliary buildings to be used as daycare facilities,” said Mayor Nils Jensen.

He added that while council is reviewing the bylaw, there is an enforcement moratorium on all existing daycares that have been using auxiliary buildings.

Before making any decisions, council wants to consult with the community, consider possible implications and whether conditions need to be applied, so right now they are “essentially in a holding pattern,” Jensen noted.

Many in the region have called for increased daycare accessibility however.

“We should generally be encouraging daycare facilities, we know from what we hear there’s a shortage of good-quality daycare facilities out there, and in my view, we should be doing as a municipality whatever we can to remove any barriers to people who may want to consider having a daycare in their home,” Jensen said.

For Tobi Blue, a local daycare owner and operator of Seedlings Daycare, the district’s willingness to work with her and others was a step forward.

“Council is committed to making change, so I’m thrilled about that. I think it’s going to be exciting,” Blue said, adding that even without restrictions, running a daycare business is difficult enough. “It’s intense, you’ve got many little children who need your undivided attention and there’s only you.”

In addition to parameters set by each municipality, daycare operators need to pass through an extensive licensing process through Island Health and meet specific qualifications. In Blue’s case, she is both the owner and licensee (licensees must be the ones operating the daycare) and has hired a full-time early childhood teacher to not only help out, but keep the business within Island Health regulations. She also works as a teacher and serves as the administrator at a local private school.

While the review is underway, she remains optimistic.

“Oak Bay Council and Mayor Jensen have been extremely supportive. I’m very thankful for their openness to new ideas and willingness to work with us,” she said.

Until a final decision is made, the district won’t take any enforcement action on daycares not within the zoning bylaw, unless there are health and safety issues, said Warren Jones, the district’s director of corporate services.

“Council will review the bylaws, and they’ll decide the changes, if any, they might want to make,” he said. “They’ll decide what those regulations may be and adopt them as bylaws.”

octavian.lacatusu @oakbaynews.com