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SARNIA, Ont. – Lambton County should explore all available options to keep Coronation Park open including conducting a thorough and meaningful consultation with all the stakeholders from the community to keep the 42-year-old child care institution open, said the Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) at Coronation Park.
“From day one, there was never any meaningful or thoughtful discussion to keep Coronation Park open,” said Brian Humphrey. “If the starting point is a report that cites all the reasons to close down Coronation Park and concludes with only one recommendation – to shut down the in-demand and highly-reputable child care centre, then one can objectively surmise that the whole process is flawed, unfair and biased towards closing Coronation Park.”
CUPE is calling for Lambton County to conduct a fully thorough and open consultation with the community by allowing the major stakeholders to have meaningful input and involvement to discuss all available options to keep Coronation Park open. “We are talking about a 42-year-old institution that has been serving the interests of the community,” continued Humphrey. “Surely, Lambton County council should take the time to properly make an informed decision by actively engaging the community about the future of Coronation Park.”
“The provincial government provided mitigation funding to municipalities so they could find alternate solutions to shutting down long-standing and successful child care centres,” said Humphrey. “Lambton County can use the mitigation funds to continue to operate Coronation Park while a transparent consultation with the community takes place to figure out ways to keep it open. Council has options available to them and we are urging them to use the September 3 meeting to find ways to serve the interests of the community instead of throwing their hands in the air.”
“There is a municipal election coming up in the next two months and residents will be watching how council deals with the future of Coronation Park,” concluded Humphrey. “Advocates and supporters of Coronation Park will be at the council meeting to watch how democracy will unfold on September 3.”
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For more information, please contact:
Brian Humphrey, CUPE National Representative, 519-433-1753
