Concordia to Extend Daycare Lease

Parents Win to Extend Downtown CPE Lease until 2025

Concordia extends CPE lease for another two years. Photo Dorothy Mombrun

After dozens of parents and hundreds of community members rallied to pressure Concordia, the University announced that the centre de la petite enfance would be given a two-year extension on its lease.

Announced on the afternoon of Nov. 23, it was originally set to expire on July 1, 2023.

According to a statement posted on Twitter, the lease has been extended until Aug. 31, 2025 and the services of the real estate management company Colliers will assist in finding a new location.

This assistance will be important since daycares need to comply with specific provincial regulations, like having an outdoor space so that children can go outside during the day. The Ministère de la Famille is reportedly going to help with the search and Concordia said that it is “committed to maintaining its current level of funding and other support” to the CPE once it relocates.

This news comes as a relief to parents, who have spent the last two weeks asking Concordia for an extension to be able to find a new location. They launched a petition to try and get more time at the current location that garnered over 1,400 signatures before it was closed around the same time the announcement was made. 

The two-year lease extension is roughly the same amount of time some waited to get into daycare, as waitlists for childcare continue to grow.