Construction is now under way for the new public daycare planned for the corner of Clarendon St. and Isabella St. in Shawville.
The government-subsidized daycare, or CPE (centre de petite enfance), will be run by the 1-2-3 Picabou Child Care Center, an organization that operates daycares in Campbell’s Bay, Mansfield and Chapeau.
The new installation will have 60 spots for kids, including 10 for infants and 50 for children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years old.
Quebec’s family ministry had originally planned to build the new location and 40 others across the province using a pre-fabricated building plan. As reported in THE EQUITY in July 2024, the ministry realized the costs of the pre-fab method would be too high, thereby delaying the opening.
1-2-3 Picabou Child Care Center general manager Carole St-Arnaud said construction was delayed as a result of the decision change.
“We had to go back to conventional construction. There were administrative delays because we had to hire an architect [ . . . ] When you modify the plan, you have to go back to the ministry,” she said.
She said while the early snow over the weekend may have impacted the amount of work that can be done before winter sets in, she remains positive about their ability to meet the final goal – which will tentatively be an opening in late fall of 2026.
“I’m still very optimistic,” she said. “We have deadlines, but it’s mother nature who controls all of that. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we cannot advance like we want to.”
Jean-Pierre Landry, who has sat on the board of the CPE 1-2-3 Picabou for 25 years, said the organization considered several different Shawville locations for the daycare before settling on the final choice on Clarendon St. close to Highway 148.
“That’s why we chose this location in Shawville. People don’t need to go across town, it won’t create unnecessary traffic,” he said.
The new daycare is going to create jobs for approximately eight educators, a cook and an assistant director. St-Arnaud said while the organization has seen many of its employees retire in recent years with more on the horizon, they are not especially concerned about finding staff for the new location.
“We have people who work, who are also part of a training program where they work for the CPE but are studying at the same time,” she said, adding that staff in the other three Picabou locations will surely want to consider working in a brand-new installation.
“When the Shawville location opens [ . . . ][those people] are going to be priorities, but after that we’re going to recruit for the positions that will become available,” she said.
The province’s family ministry announced in October it would be shutting down the old La Place 0-5 Portal for accessing recognized childcare services and replacing it with a new website, which is being introduced in phases over the next few months.
St-Arnaud said the new registration system now restricts parents from submitting an application before their child has actually been born. Now, she said, the parent will indicate on the online portal which month they are going to require a spot.
“As soon as there is a spot to fill in one of these facilities, the parent will receive a notice that there is an available spot,” she said, adding that the Shawville CPE is not yet visible on the portal.
She said it is difficult to know what the need is for daycare spots in the region since registration has not opened yet, but added that there will likely be some degree of parents wanting to move their children into other locations due to reasons of convenience.
“There are parents who are currently in Campbell’s Bay but who would prefer to be in Shawville,” she said.
Shawville municipal inspector Charles Gallant confirmed that before the ground was broken on the project some work had to be done to connect the property to the municipal sewage network, but otherwise the lot is ready to build.
