BELWOOD – Although council agrees developing a childcare facility in Belwood would be ideal, some councillors are unsure township staff have the capacity and resources to undertake a project of that scale.
Debated during a council meeting Monday evening, this follows a notice of motion from Mayor Shawn Watters earlier this month requesting staff look into developing a childcare facility/recreational space in Belwood to address the township's growing population.
"There hasn't been a physical facility built in Belwood in a very long time and so the opportunity to have something like this in the community (should be) seen as a good thing," said Watters, during the meeting. "And we also understand that there's a broader need for this...we need (childcare facilities) in other parts of our community...but we have to start somewhere."
However, some councillors felt the township needed to investigate whether it could operate a childcare facility with its current resources rather than invest money to design a project that never leaves the ground.
"As someone who works with youth myself every day I completely appreciate the need for this," said Coun. Barb Evoy, during the meeting. "(But) after speaking to staff, I do understand that there's very little capacity and that the resource bandwidth for taking on this project...could be a bit of a strain."
But Watters argued that the township "will have a very unhappy community" if the population increases without the services to accommodate the anticipated growth.
"People move here thinking that we have all these services and they quickly realize that there's not enough," said Watters. "This has to change."
Coun. Lisa MacDonald also voiced her support for the project, saying she's heard "loud and clear" from the Belwood community that they want and need a daycare.
"There's a real opportunity here and I think it's worthy of taking these baby steps to see where we can go with this," said Watters. "I think the ultimate opportunity here is to create a facility in Belwood (and) be an example for other rural communities."
Staff will return to council with a report at the June 24 meeting to provide background information and details to facilitate the next phase of this potential development. Their investigation will include a high-level identification of site-planning issues, financial implications and facility management.
A public process, including input from the Belwood communtiy development committee will also participate in the planning process.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
