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Two private home day-care operators say proposed amendments to zoning regulations will create more problems than they will solve, such as disallowing the hiring of an assistant who may be needed to help with the business.
Meghan Lange and Nicole LaRose are concerned draft changes proposed by the City of Regina will make it difficult to run their businesses, which they have had for seven and 15 ½ years respectively.
"What if down the road I did take in a special-needs child and I needed assistance?" said LaRose. "Or say I decided to take some early learning development classes for my day care and I needed to study three afternoons in the week? If a sitter was to be pregnant and hire an assistant just a couple times a month to give them a break, or to come sit in the home while they went to doctor's appointments, this would disallow that."
The concerns are regarding proposed zoning regulation changes. Until now, those who ran a home-based business could not hire an employee, but day cares are exempted; the proposed amendment would end the exemption. According to the draft changes, provided to the Leader-Post, the city administration "recognizes the inequity of the current regulation and suggests that the employee prohibition should apply to all home occupations -- including day-care homes."
Lange said she does not agree that day-care homes should be treated the same way as other at-home businesses.
"It's just not like other jobs," she said. "People count on you every day to be here. So for other businesses to be upset about the fact that we could hire someone is, I find, ludicrous because they can schedule their life around their job. We really don't."
- reprinted from the Regina Leader-Post