On Oct. 14 the University of Saskatchewan Board of Governors approved a new childcare centre to address the growing demand for daycare spots on campus.

The 90-spot facility will be located next to Souris Hall in the university’s McEown Park development. Patti McDougall, vice-provost of teaching and learning at the U of S, says the new centre will include provisions for students, faculty and staff.

“We’re going to look at all of our spots and we’re going to split them up using the ratio of 25 per cent of the spots for faculty and staff and 75 per cent of the spots being for students,” said McDougall.

The U of S currently has two childcare facilities that offer a combined 110 spots: one in the R.J. Williams Building and one in the Education Building. In recent years, demand for childcare spaces on campus has grown sharply, McDougall said.

“Our student leaders are telling us that their constituents want more childcare spaces,” said McDougall. “We have a total wait list of almost 700 spots. More than half of those waiting are students.”

The centre received the go-ahead from the Board of Governors in March 2013, but was later put on hold due to concerns about its cost.

McDougall says the next step is to begin the tender process, where the university will ask contractors to bid on the project. For this reason, McDougall said it is too early to comment on the building’s price tag. In 2012, university administrators pegged the building’s cost at $4.8 million.

Construction will begin in the spring of 2015.

“Starting in the winter is more costly than waiting until spring to start building,” said McDougall. “It typically takes a year from the time the build begins. It would be complete in the spring of 2016.”

McDougall said the facility will accommodate up to six infants, between 10 and 25 toddlers and between 69 and 74 preschoolers.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has provided the university with a $1.4 million grant in order to support the development of the new facility.

“Our government is committed to meeting the demands of a growing province and that means ensuring that there are high-quality childcare spaces for our young people and that parents have the supports they need to earn a post-secondary education and take part in the many opportunities available in our workforce,” said Education Minister Don Morgan in a statement to the Sheaf.

“Since 2007, our government has increased the number of licensed child care spaces in Saskatchewan by 4,935, or 53 per cent, and these particular spaces will not only benefit Saskatoon families, but are also important for the U of S to remain competitive.”

The Board of Governors also gave the childcare expansion committee permission to explore other childcare possibilities, including the renovation and expansion of the USSU Childcare Centre.

“In the medium and long term we’ve explored all kinds of opportunities that we may start to work with,” said Colin Tennent, the university’s associate vice-president of facilities management division.

Tennent said the renovations to the USSU Childcare Centre, now located in the R.J. Williams Building off of Cumberland Avenue, would add another 23 spots to the existing 66.

Provincial regulations allow a maximum of 90 childcare spaces in any one centre.

Tennent said the renovations would increase the quality of the facility in addition to the number of spots.

Both the U of S Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Association have been putting tremendous pressure on the university to increase the number of childcare spaces.

“Childcare has been a number one issue for the last two years,” said McDougall. “The USSU and GSA have very strongly indicated that they see this as a huge barrier to the recruitment and retention of students and they want the university to do something about it.”