Sudbury council asks for daycare cost-cutting help

After asking city staff to suggest options for the closing of Junior Citizens Daycare, Sudbury city councillors are now asking them to find ways to keep the city-run daycare open.

The shift in direction came after councillors received calls and emails from residents asking to preserve the 120-space daycare. It is also the only daycare in Sudbury that is open in the evenings.

Council now wants to form a committee to look for ways to run the daycare more efficiently.

Councillor Joe Cimino said he hopes the people who have contacted him about the issue will get involved.

"If we see the [same] passion in that process [as] we've seen in the calls and emails in the past few weeks, I think there's a positive to be had," he said.

Cimino said Junior Citizens could be a repeat of the success story with Pioneer Manor, where costs were cut after council raised concerns two years ago.

But Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said she still believes the city should get out of childcare, given all the other options available to parents. Announcing the centre will close in 2015 will give families more than enough time to find other childcare, she said.

"As a parent who had gone through childcare, being given two and half years to organize your life to find childcare for your child is incredible," Landry-Altmann said.

A third staff report on the Junior Citizens daycare is expected to come back to council in May.