City backs day-care centre

By Dan Hilborn
Published June 8, 2005


Burnaby council is onside with plans to reopen the child-care centre at the Willingdon Avenue campus of BCIT.

Councillors unanimously agreed to send a letter of support for the day care to the British Columbia Institute of Technology board of governors, before they make a final decision on the matter at their June 21 meeting.

"We are extremely concerned about the loss of the child-care centre at BCIT," said Mayor Derek Corrigan in support of a motion from Coun. Pietro Calendino.

Natalia Barzan, senior educator at the centre, said the facility has been operating out of nearby Willingdon Church since last summer, when the BCIT board forced the facility to move due to the dilapidated condition of its trailers and a decision that a day care is not a "core service" for a post-secondary institution. Barzan said staff and parents who use the child-care centre are optimistic the BCIT board will reverse its earlier decisions and allow the construction of a new, larger child-care centre on campus.

"Right now I feel positive, but I can't say more because actually, I don't know," Barzan said. "BCIT is looking into the proposal and trying to figure out how things are going to work - like the cost and whether it's feasible or not."