Due to an alleged oversight, the building that houses the Kids on the Corner school-age daycare program in Morris has been shut down.

An alleged oversight has forced Busy Nest Daycare Inc. in Morris to relocate its Kids on the Corner daycare program. Submitted photo.

The closure comes after it was realized the fire commissioner had never approved the building, a residential home, and therefore the correct occupancy permits had not been obtained, according to Tracy Holness, a board member of the Busy Nest Daycare Inc., the organization that oversees the Kids on the Corner program.

"Those things didn't happen for various reasons that we're not even fully aware of now," she said, adding to bring the building up to code now would cost a couple hundred thousand dollars.

The child-care service has temporarily relocated to a local church while board members explore options for next steps, whether it's finding a building to rent or to purchase, Holness said.

Funding and community support are also something the board will be searching for, she added. Currently the centre services 40 families from seven communities.

"They have said that if they don't have good child care they would either leave the community or one parent would not be able to work, and so that would have an enormous impact on their family's stability, their family's well-being, and ultimately the health and social well-being of their kids," Holness said.

The board is not alone in this, though, said Mayor Gavin van der Linde, after offering the support of Morris' town council and noting that council is working with the board to establish short- and long-term solutions.

"Kids on the Corner and daycare as a whole is an incredibly important function in our community. There are a lot of families that depend on it to be able to have the parents working and bringing in an income, for many reasons, whether it's for their personal income or the economic development of the community, and having good adequate daycare is critical and it's a high priority for council to make sure that not just the apparent program stays up and running but that we also have adequate capacity going into the future as the community continues to grow," van der Linde said.