阿省Children's Services Minister insists enough information released on daycare centre closure
原始发布日期： 2017-06-13 发布者：虫子字变大 字变小
'I won't be sharing any specifics with you,' minister says
Children's Services Minister Danielle Larivee says parents and the public have been given enough information about what's behind the closure of a south end daycare centre. (CBC (Kim Trynacity)) Children's Services Minister Danielle Larivee is refusing to elaborate on why a south Edmonton child care centre was abruptly closed last week, leaving parents scrambling to find alternate care arrangements. Speaking during a news conference at Edmonton's Africa Centre, Larivee reiterated that the Generations care centre was shut down on Friday, June 9th, for violating a section of the Alberta Child Care Licensing Act that deals with "discipline."
But Larivee refused to elaborate on the nature of the complaints that led to the initial investigation and ultimate closure of the centre. 'That's enough information'"I think that's enough information for parents to be able to understand why we would close that down," Larivee told reporters. "So no, I won't be sharing any specifics with you."According to the Alberta Human Services website, inspectors visited Generations Kindergarten and Nursery and fielded several complaints dating back to January 2016. The most recent inspection was completed on June 1 and was a followup to a May review which gave the centre until June 9 to remedy problems associated with staffing, furnishings, programs, and discipline. Co-located on the same property, but operating under a different licence, is the Generations out-of-school care program. It provides care for older children before and after their school classes. 
Numerous complaints and investigations were made against the daycare centre that was forced to close June 9th. (Kaylen Small/CBC) According to the Human Services website, the out-of-school care program was also subject to numerous complaints and inspections since early 2016, but did not have its licence revoked. On May 24, 2017, it too was ordered to remedy its child discipline. Larivee said Generations out-of-school care is a "completely different operation, so it's not affiliated with the other centre." The complaints and reports on the Human Services website only date back to January 2016. A parent who contacted CBC News said he filed complaints against Generations in 2015. 2015 complaintLuis Hidalgo and his wife Stacey aren't surprised the daycare was shut down."We kept driving past it and saw that it was still opened and [were] not getting a lot of feedback ... to take care of the issues that we had raised," said Hidalgo. Their daughter Abigayle was just a year old and had only been attending Generations Kindergarten and Nursery for a month when they pulled her out. They filed a complaint with Alberta Human Services in February 2015, which alleged poor hygiene, feeding and staffing issues. "The ratio of childcare workers to children for her particular age category was always a little bit off. It was never quite right," Hidalgo said. He said he hopes the daycare is reopened at some point under new management. Ministry spokesperson Aaron Manten said no further information will be released about the nature of the complaints again Generations Kindergarten and Nursery. Manton said, however, one of the allegations against the centre is being investigated by the Edmonton Police Service. The Children's Services department declined to say if any of the allegations involve a child being injured. The operator of Generations Kindergarten and Nursery did not respond to interview requests. |