• Stouffville has awarded a 10-year contract to Country Casa Montessori and Daycare to operate the Town’s new childcare centre on Weldon Road.
  • Country Casa was one of three for-profit service providers to submit bids through a Request for Proposals process.
  • Bids were not received from not-for-profit operators able to offer lower-cost spaces, frustrating some Stouffville Council Members.
  • Nine modular units will be assembled to create the facility at the northwest corner of the Clippers Sports Complex lands.
  • Grading and site preparation have already begun, with servicing work planned for next spring.
  • The new childcare center is expected to provide up to 80 spaces and generate net-positive revenues for the Town.
  • Its opening is currently planned for September 2025.

 

“As with many municipalities in Ontario, Stouffville is experiencing a shortage of daycare spaces,” a recent Staff report states. “Daycare availability and lengthy waitlists have been identified by Stouffville residents, with demand appearing to be outpacing the creation of new childcare spaces.”

To help address the challenge, Stouffville acquired a 5,600-square-foot modular facility in April, which was previously located in Mississauga. The facility consists of nine shipping container-sized units and can accommodate approximately 60 to 80 childcare spaces, depending on service provider preferences.

To find an operator for the facility, Stouffville launched a Request for Proposals on May 28. It closed in August with three for-profit proponents submitting bids. After a review process, Country Casa Montessori and Daycare was selected.

Country Casa already operates a daycare, Montessori, and private school in the Ballantrae area. Founder Rocco Priore, a Stouffville resident since 2003, also sits on the Stouffville Public Library and Chamber of Commerce boards of directors.

Other proponents included Kids & Company and Simple Learners Early Learning Academy and Childcare Centre. The evaluation process considered qualifications, business plans, proposal viability, and community benefits.

“Staff has done further due diligence and is satisfied with recommending the award to the highest scorer Country Casa Montessori & Daycare Ltd.,” the report adds.

Country Casa will coordinate with York Region to obtain a license for the location, and the 10-year contract will begin on Sept. 1, 2025. In the meantime, the Town will tender servicing contracts for foundation work needed prior to assembling the modular units.

“Future work will include site servicing in the spring of 2025, and regular procurement award limits will be adhered to where award timelines do not impede the expedition of the awarding of the daycare licence,” the report explains.

All associated capital costs are expected to be covered over the lifetime of the contract, and anticipated revenues of more than $1.6 million would result in a net-positive financial outcome for the Town.

In a conversation with Bullet Point News, Mayor Iain Lovatt expressed frustration that the Town was unable to secure a not-for-profit service provider able to offer $10-per-day spaces through the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system.

The program, deployed through a partnership between the Federal and Provincial governments, strictly allocates 30% of available funding to for-profit operators. The remaining 70% is reserved for not-for-profit subsidies.

Lovatt put forward a motion in September asking both levels of government to reconsider the ratio to help catalyze additional lower-cost spaces. The motion noted that the for-profit share of the program has been exhausted while unused funds remain in the not-for-profit portion.

“Families are being forced to waitlist for $10-per-day child care even though there is unspent budget for unrealized not-for-profit centres due to a lack of not-for-profits applying [to the program],” Lovatt’s resolution states. “Changing the ratios could unlock thousands of new $10-per-day child care spaces immediately.”

Council endorsed the motion in a unanimous vote.

“It just doesn’t make any sense, especially when there’s unused funding,” Lovatt said. “I also advocated for this with Education Minister Jill Dunlop during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August, as did many other mayors.”

During Council’s November 6 meeting, Councillor Hugo Kroon offered a similar position: “I don’t know what the next steps are in regard to these fully funded daycare spaces…but I’m just hoping that when that discussion comes up, we make this available to the people who certainly need it in our community.”

While disappointed about the inability to secure a not-for-profit operator able to access CWELCC funding, Lovatt noted that the centre will still deliver up to 80 new spots in a municipality desperate for additional childcare services.

“It’s going to be full the day we open registration,” he told us.