Abbotsford will be getting a new 143-space licensed childcare centre as part of almost 400 spaces being created in the Fraser Valley.
Childcare BC New Spaces Fund announced Wednesday (March 3) that the spaces will be in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission and Maple Ridge.
The spaces in Abbotsford will be at a new wheelchair-accessible facility, called CEFA Early Learning, scheduled to open this summer at Highstreet shopping centre.
The centre’s 143 new spaces include 48 for infants and toddlers and 96 for children ages three years to kindergarten.
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Childcare staff will be able to offer support for children and parents in Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi, French, Korean, Vietnamese and Portuguese.
A total of six projects are included in the funding announcement. In addition to the 143 spaces in Abbotsford, there will be 138 in Chilliwack, 42 in Mission and 57 in Maple Ridge.
“These new childcare spaces for families in the Fraser Valley are bringing us one step closer to delivering the quality, affordable and inclusive child care that all B.C. families deserve,” said Katrina Chen, minister of state for child care.
“Childcare for families is key to B.C.’s economic recovery, and these new spaces will make it easier for parents, especially mothers who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, to return to work or school.”
It’s credited as the “fastest creation of childcare spaces” in the province’s history and part of the September 2020 milestone that marked more than 20,000 new spaces funded in just over two years.
RELATED: Province bringing 421 new affordable childcare spaces to Fraser Valley
