The Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre executive director (ED) Jackie Kennedy centre, with assistant to the executive director Kathy Whitford, left, and Shari Lessard, from the Ministry of Education Early Years branch, right, take part in a sod-turning ceremony Tuesday, at the site of a planned new daycare facility. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff) 

By Angela Brown

Support for children

Friendship Centre breaks ground on new daycare facility

Jul 23, 2019 | 5:23 PM

The Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre held a sod-turning ceremony to announce the start of a project to build a new daycare.

Executive director Jackie Kennedy said it was a good time to launch the initiative for something needed in the community.

“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “We have a 51-spot daycare we are going to be building. It is going to be specialty daycare – multicultural, with extended hours.”

The centre will offer various cultural activities and serve both First Nation and non-Indigenous families.

Kennedy said there is currently a waiting list for daycare spaces in North Battleford and said the project will help fill the gap.

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The new centre will be about 2,200 sq. ft. and situated to the east of the Friendship Centre building near downtown North Battleford. The centre will hire staff to operate the new facility.

The daycare will provide spaces for children aged six weeks to 12, but most of the children are expected to be toddlers.

The building should be completed by May 2020.

The province provided start-up funding of $406,000 for the project. The Friendship Centre has applied for additional grants to help support the initiative.

The Friendship Centre will decide on a name for the facility at a later date through a public input process.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW