The Child Care and Early Years Division of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent (hereafter referred to as “the Municipality”) requests information from interested, eligible not-for-profit child care agencies licensed under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014. The selected agency(ies) will work with the Municipality to design and plan the expansion of childcare within a local long term care home that may include extended hours to meet the unique needs of workers that work various shifts. The Municipality may move forward with an interested operator from this competition to operate full-day child care programs for Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and/or Family Groupings beginning no Later than December 2026 at 315 King Street West, Chatham, Ontario.

The retrofit is funded by the Province of Ontario through the Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund (ELCC). The ELCC Fund supports infrastructure projects aimed at increasing access and inclusion in child care for underserved communities by creating new, licensed child care spaces. Funding is specifically designated for not-for-profit licensed child care centres, in alignment with Ontario’s Access and Inclusion Framework.

These new child care spaces are part of the Chatham-Kent Expansion Plan. As part of this expansion, the Municipality is seeking operators who are interested and able to explore the feasibility of expanded hours outside of the current standard hours that the Canada-Wide Early Leaning and Child Care program supports. If successful, this will be the first of its kind in Chatham-Kent which is why the Municipality is seeking an operator(s) to assist in exploring and developing a viable program. The selected operator(s) will have the opportunity to guide development before deciding whether they wish to operate this program.