By Matthew Liebenberg
After 50 years of providing care and early learning experiences for children, the Natural Wonders Early Learning Centre (ELC) in Swift Current can look back at making a difference in the lives of many families.
A celebration of this milestone took place at the organization’s six locations during the week of Sept. 21-25.
Natural Wonders ELC Executive Director Sheila Paradis said the activities for the celebration were organized to focus on the children at each location.
“We decided we would do more about the children and to have a day of fun,” she noted. “We invited the parents for the end of the day to show some of the interesting things that we do with the children and make it more about the families. It turned out really good.”
She felt the dedication of staff over the years played a key role in making it possible for the organization to reach this 50-year milestone.
“It’s about the kids and the families and the community,” she said. “We have a really strong team and we’re passionate about our jobs.”
The organization’s journey began with its incorporation on Sept. 15, 1976 by a group of dedicated volunteer parents. It initially opened as the Live & Learn Day Care Centre with 26 spaces on McDonald Crescent and then moved to Bell Street.
As demand for childcare expanded throughout Swift Current, the non-profit steadily scaled its operations. It purchased a home on Dahl Street in 1991 that was renamed Southside Live and Learn with 36 spaces. The current Winnie Street location opened in 2004 as Northside Live and Learn with an additional 54 spaces.
A significant regulatory change occurred in 2006 when the licensing responsibility for child care was realigned and placed within the Ministry of Education. A shift from the use of the term daycare to the term early learning and child care (ELCC) gave recognition to the importance of holistic development for children in their early years.
This was reflected in the organization’s name change in 2007, when it officially became known as Natural Wonders Early Learning Centre.
A significant renovation of the Winnie Street location and the addition of a 700 square feet loft area took place in 2009. This allowed for the transfer of children and staff from the south side house, which was sold due to the need for extensive and costly repairs.
The development of the new joint use school facility in Swift Current created a new opportunity for Natural Wonders ELC. The building was designed to include an early learning centre, which opened as the Saskatchewan Valley location in September 2014 with 51 spaces that were all filled within just two months.
Enrolment pressure resulted in a decision to use the Winnie Street and Saskatchewan Valley locations only for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, and to find a separate space for school age children. Natural Wonders ELC therefore began to lease space in the Dickson Community Centre in 2017.
Natural Wonders ELC was awarded 28 more spaces in 2018 and the organization began to plan for this expansion. The initial focus was on using space at the Dickson Community Centre, but it was not possible and in 2020 Natural Wonders ELC purchased the downtown Cheadle Street location. The available spaces filled up much faster than expected and it soon became necessary to apply for additional spaces. The Cheadle Place location on the upper floor of the Cheadle Street building now has 90 licensed spaces.
Natural Wonders ELC continued to face high demand for child care spaces. The next step therefore was to use the main floor of the Cheadle Street building after the lease contract for tenants expired. It became the Cheadle Main location and opened in November 2022 with 77 licensed spaces. Both the Cheadle Place and Cheadle Main sites are used for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Natural Wonders ELC received another allocation of 90 child care spaces in November 2022. It purchased the Elmwood building on Chaplin Street East and renovated the upper floor, which opened as the Elmwood Centre for school age children in July 2023.
The allocation of another 82 child care spaces to Natural Wonders ELC resulted in the most recent expansion. The main floor of the Elmwood building was renovated and opened as the Elmwood Main location for toddlers and preschoolers.
Natural Wonders ELC has experienced a significant growth in staff from as few as 15 employees historically to approximately 125 currently to support the expansion of operations.
The organization currently oversees 489 licensed spaces across its different sites, of which 456 are government-funded spaces under the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (CWELCC) and 33 spaces at Elmwood Centre are unfunded.
Paradis emphasized that in addition to the physical growth experienced by Natural Wonders ELC over the past 50 years, there has also been immense and positive programming changes due to the evolving understanding of how children learn and the importance of early childhood education.
“Play based learning is at the forefront of our program, covering the holistic development of children,” she said. “Social and emotional development is huge in the early years. Although we are educators, our job is to help the whole child develop through play and investigation.”
Minister of Education and Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley as well as senior Ministry officials attended the 50th anniversary celebration at the Winnie Street location, Sept. 22.
Hindley said during a media interview the story of Natural Wonders ELC is a remarkable one of growth.
“It has grown from such humble beginnings,” he noted. “Today Natural Wonders is the third largest daycare operation in the province of Saskatchewan outside of the YMCA in Regina and Saskatoon, which is pretty impressive to see that we have that here in Swift Current.”
He added that the knowledge and experience within Natural Wonders ELC have been beneficial to him when he took responsibility for the childcare portfolio in his role as education minister.
“Over the past couple of years, as I’ve got to learn the file and learn about some of the challenges but also some of the huge successes in childcare, I can lean on the team here,” he said. “I can ask questions of Sheila and her team at Natural Wonders and gain their input and insight and advice, and that’s really valuable to me as the minister. We have officials from the Ministry of Education here today and I know they would say that Natural Wonders has been a really excellent partner to work with.”
Hindley noted that the Saskatchewan government is shifting its focus toward system stability after it recently renewed the five-year bilateral agreement with the federal government on $10-a-day affordable child care. While the province has nearly achieved its initial target of creating 28,000 new child care spaces, the updated agreement emphasizes operational flexibility and maintaining existing capacity over rigid expansion quotas.
“First and foremost, we want to protect the system that we’ve built already in conjunction with the child care sector,” Hindley emphasized. “This is a collaboration of the federal government program which is led by them, administered by the Saskatchewan government, but done so in partnership with communities and with child care operators like Natural Wonders.”
Paradis feels the CWELCC agreement between the federal and provincial governments is an important program that makes it possible for families to have access to ELCC services. However, the operation of a non-profit child care facility has become increasingly complex and expensive. Inflation, rising utility costs, higher grocery prices and payroll expenditures have severely stretched the operating budgets of Natural Wonders ELC in recent years.
She is therefore in favour of a predictable supply-side funding model that includes a funded, comprehensive benefits package for employees.
“We want supply-side funding so we don’t have to worry about getting a grant,” she said. “We’re going to know what our income looks like and then we’re able to better budget and look at our expenses, but within that there has to be a new comprehensive wage grid that includes benefit packages and pensions. We just really advocate for the educators, because it doesn’t matter whatever else you do, but if you don’t have those educators, you don’t have a program.”
