A new daycare is coming to Thunder Bay, but will it make a dent in the lack of child-care spaces?

A new preschool is opening in September for children ages 2to 6in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Nature's Nest Preschool is a privately owned and operated daycare centre,with a teaching team with over 60 years of combined education experience. It will offer spaces for 24 children.

Leeann Strachan, co-owner of Nature's Nest, said the idea for the preschool stemmed from conversations about the lack of child-care options for children in Thunder Bay.

She said the daycare will teach all sorts of programs.

"We not only cover the core subjects that are focused on in Ontario's kindergarten curriculum, we go above and beyond that," said Strachan. "And we teach them things like the sciences, botany, horticulture, sustainability and community connectivity."

Strachan added Nature's Nest will differ from other preschools in Thunder Bay because it's a nature-based program in an urban setting.

"We have nature based programs that are rural that are absolutely amazing, but there's nothing in the urban setting and we would like children to experience what it's like to have these types of opportunities outside of their own backyards."

Struggles to access daycare centre in Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay is considered a child-care desert, withmore than three children for every licensedspace available, according to a recent report from theCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which found most cities in Canada are child-care deserts.

Parents Asia Henderson and Brandon Vallance havebeen searching for a permanent daycare centre for their three-year-old daughter, Fern, almost since right after her birth.

Henderson said her daughter has been on daycare waitlists since Henderson was pregnant, and she'snowreaching the top of the list at some centres. Henderson said Fern's on her third home daycare in two years, which has been stressful as working parents.

"Home daycares are a little less reliable, and the fact that they have sick days, as well, and their children get sick. So we've had to call in sick ourselves on those days and miss work."

Henderson said at-home daycare is not predictable enough for what they're looking for.

"Just the structure of it as well, like our daughter has a hard time with transitions. And I think in the home-care environment, those are a little less predictable often because of the smaller amount of children."

Henderson said her and Vallance are looking to find a daycare centre that offers a good daily rhythm and outdoor play.

"We're always ready to make that switch because, again, it's cheaper at the centres now that it's government subsidized at a lot of the programs We always hope this is the last daycare, but things come up."

Child care hard to find in much of Canada

The lack of available child-care spaces is not unique to Thunder Bay, and spaces are difficult to find right across Canada, explainedMartha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, a non-profit research institute based in Toronto.

"If people are looking for child care, especially if it's an infant or toddler, it's really hard to find in most parts of Canada," she said.

Friendly said she believeschild care must be publicly funded or non-profit.

"The parent fees are critical, which is really where the government has come in with public funding, which is supposed to be prioritizing public and not for profit child care."

Friendly said child-care services must be created in the most needed parts of Canada, and it's always good to have more child services. She added people will welcome any form of child care since it's so scarce.

"The real point is, is it in a community where it's needed? Who is it going to be serving? Is it going to be part of the public system?Because the public system is the thing that is coming Canada wide, that's going to lower parent fees to make them more affordable, which has already begun."

At Nature's Nest, which is privately owned, eachchild'stuition is $100 per day.

Andrea Mulligan, another co-owner of Nature's Nest, said the fees will allow thepreschool to offerprogramming that's above what's currentlyin Thunder Bay.

"We are privately owned, which gives us the flexibility to offer really purposeful child care that's a curated program that includes all those great things [such as] language, maths etcetera," she said.

"Our programming is definitely going to be elevated, and we're able to be a bit more purposeful because of the ratio of adults and educators, registered early childhood educators in the room. So we'll be able to deliver program programming to that smaller ratio."