Scott Christian announces candidacy for Region of Queens Mayor. Photo: Scott Christian for Mayor of RQM Facebook page

Scott Christian is first to announce his intention to run for Mayor of Queens in the 2024 municipal election.

The former Chair of the Queens Daycare Association made the announcement in a video released on social media Friday.

During the two and a half minute long video Christian raised concerns about the high levels of poverty, lack of affordable and seniors housing, and under-realized economic development in Queens.

He calls for the municipality to work with the province, grassroots and non-profit organizations, as well as local businesses to address those concerns.

Christian says he intends to change the culture around the council table.

“But the reality is that the current mayor and council have held us back because they’ve failed to work together as a team, and they have no plan in place for the future,” says Christian. “So, what I propose is this, that in our next council defines and commits to a common vision for the future of Queen County, develops a plan to get us there, and supports our administration to follow through on that plan. We make thoughtful, affordable, strategic investments in our community.”

Christian spent several years as the Chair of the Queens Daycare Association before it was recently placed under the care of the YMCA.

He is a business consultant and launched the Work Evolved co-working space in Liverpool.

Christian says Queens has many attributes and much to be proud of including the Universally Designed Play Park and the new long-term care home under construction around Queens Place.

In his video, Christian says Queens Place is still reeling from the loss of their junior hockey team and the canteen has been unable to find a way to stay open. He also criticizes council for not moving fast enough to get a new swimming pool in South Queens.

“There’s clear desire for change within the Region of Queens Municipality and I would be honoured to lead that change,” says Christian. “We can and will do better together.”

At this point neither Mayor Darlene Norman nor Deputy Mayor Jack Fancy have publicly announced if they will run for the position.

There is still plenty of time for candidates to announce as the next municipal election is scheduled for October 2024.

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Queens Daycare extension under construction, September 2023. Photo Scott Christian

The South Shore chapter of the YMCA will take over operations of Queens Daycare.

President of the Queens Day Care Association Scott Christian says putting the centre in the hands of the YMCA will ensure the sustainability and long-term solvency of the daycare, while offering improved programming by providing more opportunities to professionalize and better support staff.

“It has become so incredibly arduous and challenging to stay apprised of, and responsive to the shifting landscape around early childhood development,” said Christian.

He says the provincial and federal governments have recognized the importance of providing childcare and have really thrown their support into the sector.

Christian says initiatives like $10 a day daycare, better training and increased wages for workers are all very welcome but all those measures come with a level of oversight that is difficult, if not impossible for a volunteer board to meet.

“When you have that type of corporate infrastructure you can just leave the day-to-day of, the on-site director really has to worry about relationships with the families and supporting the staffing compliment right?” said Christian. “Like, the actual day-to-day stuff and not having to worry about maintaining the building, managing the building, you know, and then reporting for funding and budgeting and you know, and then the list goes on and on and on.”

According to CEO South Shore YMCA Yvonne Smith, that is where they come in.

“There’s a lot happening with the, with the changes within the childcare environment and so we were really one of the first if not the first to transition a for-profit childcare to a license not-for-profit and that was the Greenwood transition which we did, and since then we’ve been working on some others,” said Smith.

Christian believes the YMCA is the right organization to lead the daycare in the years ahead.

“They’re really well suited. They are engaged and involved in provision of licensed childcare throughout Southwest Nova Scotia and this just is kind of, for me, it’s the next chapter, the next chapter of Queens daycare,” said Christian. “[It] makes a lot of sense I think that I applaud what we as a volunteer community group have been able to do, but it’s just time to recognize that the best decision for the operation is to allow an organization who’s better suited to be able to take it to the next level.”

Christian says the Queens Daycare Association and YMCA have been working on the deal for months.

They agreed they would wait to make the announcement until the association had an opportunity to inform staff and families of the change.

Now that the details have been worked out and those groups have been notified, Christian anticipates the YMCA will take over the day-to-day operations in early November.

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Queens Daycare extension under construction, September 2023. Photo Scott Christian

Queens Daycare Association has set spring of 2024 to open their expanded childcare centre.

The facility currently provides care for 42 children and 8 infants. Once renovations are complete another 65 childcare spaces will be opened.

President of the Queens Daycare Association Scott Christian says some reconfiguration of classes will be necessary during construction.

“The new side is expected to be complete this winter. We’re aiming for December or January to have the new building portion complete and then we’ll just migrate all the kiddos over there onto the new side so that there’s no sort of disruption to the operation,” said Christian. “Migrate everybody over there and then we’ll be getting the upstairs of the old Mount Pleasant school which the program is currently taking place in and that will be completely renovated.”

The renovations will involve the creation of 13 new toilets and sinks to meet provincial guidelines that dictate the ratio of children to washroom facilities.

Christian says finding qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) has been challenging in the past and he appreciates the work being done by the provincial government to open new spaces to train more childcare professionals.

“It’s really challenging to get the infrastructure and the labour force pieces to kind of move in tandem with one another and so sort of, delays to the construction project have meant that now we’re further along in terms of the province investing and creating more and developing more ECEs.,” said Christian. “So, we’re hopeful that when we do get to a point where we’re able to open up both sides of the new and newly renovated daycare that we will be able to hire and have the type of team that we will be able to pretty quickly ratchet up our program to accept new families into the program because we still are maintaining a waitlist that fluctuates between 40 and 50 kids.”

Christian says the childcare landscape has changed drastically over the past few years as different levels of government try to find a path forward that works for children, parents, and care providers.

“The move to sort of, $10 a day average childcare across the province and across the country has been challenging,” said Christian. “It’s just structurally, is very complex but I have to applaud the government has been, well it’s been challenging and while there’s lots of difficult decisions and what they’ve been very supportive, I would say they’ve been very supportive to the community-based organisations who are trying to navigate it.”

Christian sees more young families in Queens and says the renovations will be key to the Queens Daycare meeting the demands of the community.

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Rendering of Queens Daycare expansion courtesy Well Engineered Inc.

It appears Queens new daycare building will be in place before enough staff are found.

The planning and design phase of the new annex is complete and permits are in place to break ground this fall.

The addition of the 3,800 square foot annex will nearly double the daycare’s existing 4,000 square feet allowing the facility to increase the number of children it can support from 42 to 91.

Chair of the Queens Daycare Association Scott Christian says the $2 million investment from the provincial government will mean a new facility tailored to the needs of a daycare.

However, finding qualified Early Childhood Educators will be more challenging.

Christian says with waitlists in the three streams of infant, pre-primary and afterschool care it will take time to find staff to allow them to reach their capacity.

“There’s going to be a lot of excitement around this,” said Christian. “We have this big, new shiny building. The reality is we’re not going to be able to flip a switch and welcome 90 children into our program.”

Christian says the issue is that many initiatives are only now coming online and it could be several years before today’s students are ready for the workforce.

“The requirement is that two-thirds of your staff need to be certified ECEs and the reality is that the labour force does not exist right now,” said Christian. “The province is doing wonderful things in terms of working with the colleges, working with Mount St. Vincent University to really ramp up those programs and the capacity of those programs to be churning out ECEs.”

The entire daycare project, managed by Well Engineered Inc. out of Dartmouth will be completed in two phases, construction of the annex then renovation of the existing school building.

Christian says they expect to welcome children into a fully expanded and renovated Queens Daycare by December 2023.

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Interior of the new infant care facility at Queens Daycare. Photo Ed Halverson

Parents of infants in Queens have a childcare option for the very first time.

The Queens Daycare Association officially opened their infant care centre for children as young as four months old on Tuesday.

Chair of the association’s board of directors Scott Christian says he knows from personal experience how essential the service will be for families who are new to Queens.

“I’m new to the community, I’ve only lived here for five years and I asked people, where do infants go? Where does your baby go when you needed to go back to work? It’s largely, that gap is filled by grandma or an aunt or uncle or a close family friend. But outside of that there’s really no opportunities,” said Christian.

The association began applying for grants in 2017 to build the $400,000 infant care facility.

The work was completed though a $250,000 grant received from the province and $150,000 in private donations.

Toys wait for kids in the new play area. Photo Ed Halverson

Already, three of the eight available infant spaces are filled and Christian expects now that the doors are open the remaining spots will be snapped up.

Queens Daycare Association is also licensed to provide care for 42 children in their afterschool, toddler and pre-school programs and there are almost another 40 on a waitlist to get in.

Christian says the need for licensed childcare in Queens is obvious.

“There were other facilities in the community who got out of it because of how challenging it is to be solvent. There’s really no opportunity for for-profit childcare in rural communities, so it’s up to non-profits like ours in the charitable sector to step in,” said Christian.

Scott Christian (center) cuts the ribbon to officially open the centre as board members and invited guests look on. Photo Ed Halverson

The proverbial paint is barely dry and already Christian says the association is looking to expand.

“We are the sole provider of licensed childcare in the community and with a waitlist like that and with the demographic trends, with so many new families moving to the area and properties being bought up, and whatnot, we know that there’s just going to be an increase in need for it.”

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Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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