Summit Community Services announced on Tuesday, Jan. 28 that the new Rocky Mountain Childcare Facility in Marysville will officially open its doors on Mar. 3, 2025.
"For the first time, the spectacular building will be filled with children — laughing, learning, and playing in a space designed to foster our community's youngest learners' creativity, growth, and development," a Summit spokesperson said.
Summit Community Services is a non-profit society that has operated in the Kimberley-Cranbrook area for over 50 years. They will eventually be able to offer spaces for 148 children in a variety of programs, including infant-toddler, after-school programs for school-aged children and full and half-day programming for children aged three to five.
However, due to a lack of Early Childhood Educators, not all of these programs will be able to open on day one. Summit said they are continuing to work on recruitment until all programs are open and staffed appropriately, with their gradual opening process anticipated to be completed by the end of this year.
Further, Summit said that due to "funding regulations" this new facility will not qualify for $10/day funding for their first two years of operation.
"This means parents who secure a spot for their child must pay the government-set fees," they said. "Families will still qualify for the Childcare Fee Reduction Initiative and may apply to the Affordable Child Care Benefit program to help reduce costs."
Spaces for their seven programs will be allocated using a system-generated lottery, and parents who want to register children for the lottery can do so online. Registration opens on Monday, Feb. 10 and closes at midnight on Feb. 14.
Visit summitfamily.ca to find the registration forms for your child or children during this time period only. Upon completion of the form, parents will get an electronic confirmation of the successful registration for the lottery, with the lottery to take place on Feb. 18 and successful families to be contacted by Feb. 21 at the latest.
The remaining names will be entered into a system-generated waiting list.
Parents will be contacted by following the system-generated waiting list as new spots and programs open up. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Summit’s Childcare Director, Cheryl Anderson, at childcaredirector@summitfamily.ca or 250-514-1437.
