Fort Providence, N.W.T., celebrates opening of new daycare

A new daycare in Fort Providence, aimed at making life easier for parents, marked its official opening in the N.W.T. community this week. 

There was a celebratory event and community feast on Wednesday. Erin Sullivan, the daycare's manager, told CBC News she hoped it warmed parents to the idea of signing their children up.

"They explored it, they saw the inside of the daycare, and I hope that gives them enough courage to bring their kids in," she said. 

Sullivan said the daycare is sponsored by the Deh Gáh Got'îê First Nation in Fort Providence, and is for children ranging from six weeks in age to three years. They have space for up to 12 kids in total, and three have been registered so far. 

"It's been very nice having new kids coming in," she said. "Teaching them how to be polite and how to share and how to just be friendly with other children."

Joyce McLeod, a program co-ordinator for the Aboriginal Head Start program that offers half-day preschool for Indigenous children, said the space was named after Margaret Vandell. Vandell was a teacher at Fort Providence's Deh Gáh School, and has been "instrumental" in education in the community, she said. 

McLeod said she's also seen a considerable need for a daycare in Fort Providence.

"I have seen a lot of parents struggling, young parents struggling," she explained. "They have a hard time obtaining child care and it's been going on for a long time." 

Sullivan, herself, is among those parents who had a hard time. Before starting up the daycare, she'd bring her daughter to work with her. 

"It was hard, it was stressful, but we did it and I'm very proud of myself." 

Sullivan said the daycare is important because it'll help other young moms work. Though it officially opened this week, she said it's been open for nearly a month now. Sullivan said the program is subsidized though a federal program so parents only have to pay $10 a day.