Kensington to shutter summer camp for kids

One Island community is cancelling its summer program after it determined the cost of licencing the camp would have been "astronomical."

The Town of Kensington had offered a seven-week summer camp to 30 children, at a cost of only $11 a day.

Mayor Rowan Caseley said the cost to bring the program to a level needed to meet new provincial licencing rules was too much.

• Provincial law could end Kensington's summer day camps 
• Changes to Early Learning and Child Care Act now in effect​

"The costs of trying to meet those regulations and put programs together really was going to make it prohibitive for us to be able to do it," said Caseley.

Caseley couldn't provide a cost estimate because the town found the number too high even before accounting for all the changes that would have to be made.

New rules came into effect Jan. 1

"We crunched a little bit, but we didn't have to go very far before we realized that the renovations and the things that would have to take place … would be astronomical," said Caseley.

The province's new Early Learning and Child Care Act mandated that starting Jan. 1, 2017 some camps, depending on how many children attended, how long they were there, and the amount of supervision they would need, would need a licence.

"From a safety point of view, from an education point of view, from a child welfare point of view … we couldn't argue with any of the regulations," said Casely.

In the end, Casely said it was important to shutter the program.

"If something had happened, we might have regretted that we were running the program," he said.

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