Eastern P.E.I. restaurant will serve up a side of child care this fall

The owners of a restaurant in Souris, P.E.I. have come up with a unique way to stay busy during the traditionally slow off-season: by offering after-school care for children in the area. 

Amber and Jordan Dennis own Strait Goods, a restaurant that is busy in the summer thanks to an influx of tourists to the area and seasonal ferry traffic to the Magdalen Islands. 

But the pair said keeping afloat through the fall, winter and spring can be a challenge — and they want to put their ample space to good use. 

"The biggest thing that sparked the interest for me was hearing there's a need in the area, and we actually have the infrastructure," said Amber Dennis. 

In addition to the Strait Goods restaurant space, the building they own has 3,000 square feet of previously unused space.

Other than what's offered at the local French daycare located in the same building as École La-Belle-Cloche, Dennis said she isn't aware of after-school programs available elsewhere in the Souris area.

Parents are doing everything they can to get to work, to make sure they can stay at work for the duration of their job. Right now, they use their family members.— Amber Dennis

"We need after-school care to keep parents in the workplace," she said. "Parents are doing everything they can to get to work, to make sure they can stay at work for the duration of their job. Right now, they use their family members."

The Dennises plan to run the program — called Strait After School — from September to December this year as a pilot. 

They plan to take in 10 children between 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., offering an evening meal to the students if their parents make that request.  

With more people moving to the area from elsewhere in Canada and around the world, they said it's more important than ever to offer flexibility when it comes to child care.  

"Newcomers come here with absolutely no family to take care of their kids while they're at work, and they've come here to work," Dennis said. "We need to be able to provide the service." 

'People are begging for more child care'

For Katelyn Bruce, the gap in services for school-aged children has meant a decline in her income from social media and web development projects. 

"I was actually unable to work full-time this summer," she said. "I had to let go of numerous of my clients and I'm only working with one client right now."

Bruce has relied on family and friends to help out with child care in the past, but now that she has signed up for Strait After School, business is picking up.

"I have a couple of new social-media clients that are ready to work with me, and that'll alleviate a lot of the stress with the child-care situations."

She said finding child care can be a daily struggle for local parents, who often have to design a patchwork of potential solutions. 

"People are begging for more child care," said Bruce.

She said she doesn't understand why the local English-language school doesn't offer an after-school program, adding: "It blows my mind."

Bruce speculated that could change in the future, "once they understand that… Amber's got maybe 25, 30 kids here, and they still don't have enough space."

Talks to begin on universal program

A spokesperson from P.E.I.'s Department of Education and Early Years said in a statement that the department has committed to a review of after-school child care. 

They said discussions will start this fall with existing providers of school-aged care to examine options for a universal program for that age group.  

Dennis said she didn't need any licensing or certification to start the privately run program, but she and her husband have completed criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks, and updated their first-aid training. 

Seven families have signed up so far, she said, and she expects that to grow once word of the program spreads. 

"I'm not fixing the problem, but I'm trying to do something," she said.