Counties Partnership, Provincial Funding, Allocate 23 New Licensed Child Care Spaces in Portland by Fall of 2025

The United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, in partnership with the Township of Rideau Lakes, Rideau Lakes Early Learning Centre (RLELC), and the Portland on the Rideau Historical Society, are pleased to announce the allocation of 23 new affordable licensed child care spaces in Portland. These new high-quality licensed child care spaces are expected to begin operations by fall 2025.

The new child care spaces will be operated by the RLELC, inside Portland’s Emanuel Heritage Centre. "We are delighted to be working with these partners to offer new child care spaces in our community under the Canada Wide Early Learning Child Care (CWELCC) initiative", said Sonya Seward, Executive Director, RLELC.

Mayor of Rideau Lakes, and member of Counties Council, Arie Hoogenboom, shared his enthusiasm about the new child care spaces saying, “I am thrilled to have contributed to the expansion of this important family service.”

The spaces are part of the broader CWELCC, in which the Province of Ontario has committed to improving access to child care by allocating funding to support the creation of 86,000 new, high-quality, affordable child care spaces.

Under the CWELCC, the Province of Ontario approved the CWELCC Leeds and Grenville Directed Growth Strategy that will see a total of 397 new affordable licensed infant, toddler and preschool spaces being created across Leeds and Grenville by the end of 2026.

For more information on Children’s Services and Child Care Expansion in Leeds and Grenville, contact Manager of Children’s Services, Shannon Brown, at 613-342-3840 ext. 2461, or email Shannon.Brown@uclg.on.ca

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Media inquiries:

John Kalivas, Communications Coordinator

United Counties of Leeds and Grenville

25 Central Avenue W., Suite 100, Brockville, ON, K6V 4N6

613-342-3840 ext. 2454 or John.Kalivas@uclg.on.ca

Attachments

LG Media Release - Child Care Partnership in Portland - October 2, 2024