Fall 2025 Expansion Update
To Our Pemberton Community,
The Pemberton Child Care Society would like to provide an update to the community regarding the current status of the daycare expansion. We are happy to report that the Society was able to take over ownership of the building this September from the Village of Pemberton. We have now moved into the final phases of getting our funding model approved and hiring staff. There are significant challenges with these critical steps and our management team has been in contact with local Government officials in the hopes they can assist. The PCC board would like to provide an update on our current situation to the community for full transparency.
Pemberton and many other communities across B.C. are facing a critical shortage of qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs). Local recruitment efforts have been, and continue to be exhausted, and international hiring has become increasingly difficult due to reduced BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) draws, higher eligibility thresholds, and the significant cost of pursuing Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs).
At Pemberton Children’s Centre, we currently employ 17 staff but need 10–11 more to fully open our new licensed programs. Despite extensive recruitment efforts, only one qualified Canadian applicant has applied, all others require immigration sponsorship.
We are actively urging the Government to consider an LMIA exemption for fully qualified ECEs as a matter of critical Canadian interest. This change would help stabilize the ECE workforce and ensure families in Pemberton, and across the province, have continued access to high quality childcare.
As a non profit centre who has entered into the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program, we are also working through the process to include the expansion under our current Funding Agreement. The $10 a Day program was initially created to assist daycares already in operation. As the PCC expansion has yet to begin operating and as the $10 a Day program doesn’t have clear guidelines to incorporate new (not yet operating) centres, we are running into uncharted territory and therefore delayed timelines, not to mention strike actions across government.
Our management team has been working tirelessly and our board has been assisting where possible to move through these challenges. There has been some progress though nothing is moving as quickly as we all would like. We would like to acknowledge the assistance from our exceptional management team as well as our local BC MLA’s office. We appreciate the patience from the community and will continue to work towards the shared goal of opening the centre.
Sincerely,
Pemberton Childcare Society Board of Directors
The Pemberton Child Care Society would like to provide an update to the community regarding the current status of the daycare expansion. We are happy to report that the Society was able to take over ownership of the building this September from the Village of Pemberton. We have now moved into the final phases of getting our funding model approved and hiring staff. There are significant challenges with these critical steps and our management team has been in contact with local Government officials in the hopes they can assist. The PCC board would like to provide an update on our current situation to the community for full transparency.
Pemberton and many other communities across B.C. are facing a critical shortage of qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs). Local recruitment efforts have been, and continue to be exhausted, and international hiring has become increasingly difficult due to reduced BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) draws, higher eligibility thresholds, and the significant cost of pursuing Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs).
At Pemberton Children’s Centre, we currently employ 17 staff but need 10–11 more to fully open our new licensed programs. Despite extensive recruitment efforts, only one qualified Canadian applicant has applied, all others require immigration sponsorship.
We are actively urging the Government to consider an LMIA exemption for fully qualified ECEs as a matter of critical Canadian interest. This change would help stabilize the ECE workforce and ensure families in Pemberton, and across the province, have continued access to high quality childcare.
As a non profit centre who has entered into the $10 a Day ChildCareBC program, we are also working through the process to include the expansion under our current Funding Agreement. The $10 a Day program was initially created to assist daycares already in operation. As the PCC expansion has yet to begin operating and as the $10 a Day program doesn’t have clear guidelines to incorporate new (not yet operating) centres, we are running into uncharted territory and therefore delayed timelines, not to mention strike actions across government.
Our management team has been working tirelessly and our board has been assisting where possible to move through these challenges. There has been some progress though nothing is moving as quickly as we all would like. We would like to acknowledge the assistance from our exceptional management team as well as our local BC MLA’s office. We appreciate the patience from the community and will continue to work towards the shared goal of opening the centre.
Sincerely,
Pemberton Childcare Society Board of Directors