Construction starts on new daycare
September 15, 2025, 8:31 am
Donnie Matichuk
Construction has started on a new 90-spot daycare in Moosomin. The new daycare is in addition to the existing Playfair Daycare, and once complete will mean Moosomin has 162 daycare spots.
Rococo Construction is the general contractor for the project.
The project has been in the works since 2023 when it was announced that Play Fair Daycare was approved for a new building with 90 new spots and received more than $1 million from the provincial government for construction costs.
“The fall of 2023 is when we were granted the additional 90 spaces for the daycare, so that’s where it all kicked off,” says Jalisa Miller with Playfair Daycare. “And since then we’ve been going through the design process, and then it was out for bids, and now we are starting construction.
“I think the timing of it was a surprise because we had applied for the spots years prior to that and had just kind of been on a waiting list with no news, and then it just kind of came out of nowhere. I think we knew we were going to get some, but not that it was going to be for that many. We were just hoping for enough to fill the building that we were currently in because we had some capacity for more kids in there, but I’m not sure we expected another building.”
They say the new daycare couldn’t come soon enough.
“Right now we have a waitlist of over 100 kids and it’s difficult to even move kids around as they age out of the area they are in,” says Jill Jones with Playfair Daycare. “We have to wait for school to be done and then all the Kindergarteners move over to the church (Kids Kollege and Playschool) and then that frees up some space to move babies to toddlers and toddlers upstairs.
Right now there is just such a restriction on the amount of daycare spaces that we are able to provide to the community, and right now we are really short.
“The opening of this new daycare will provide us with 90 new spots to welcome some new kids in and help us deal with that.”
Darren Swanson with Rococo Construction says site prep for the new build is full-speed ahead.
“We are getting the site cleared and getting the topsoil removed so we can get going with some of the bricks and mortar,” he says. “In about two weeks you should see a hole dug and some concrete going in and hopefully we get a good long fall and get this building closed in before Christmas if we can.
“It’s 11 to 12 months to get it all done, that is the projected timeframe. We are always interested in trying to speed that up so we are looking at different options for that. The trades are all in place right now and getting stuff lined up.
“There will be times when there are 20 or 30 people on site, and other times when there are six or 10. When we get inside and get the plumbers and electricians going, that’s when you will see the most of the folks around.
“Speaking to the design, the daycare did a really good job of a good, efficient, value design. I was impressed with that and got similar feedback from some of the trades as well.”
“If we can have construction done in that 12 month range, then we will need another couple of months to get all the inside of the building completed—things like tables, toys, all that other good stuff. And so hopefully we would be open by Q1 of 2027,” says Jones.
Miller says they are happy to see the daycare going just south of MacLeod Elementary School.
“We honestly didn’t have a lot of options of where the location could be. The school was our preferred spot right off the start, and it just took a little bit of work with the school division themselves to get that spot secured, but we had looked at if we should build over by the hospital where there is a bit more space and spread out, but ideally we wanted to be over by the school because we have kids going back and forth from school to daycare,” she says. “So in working with the school division, they gave us that corner of their land. We did look at some other spots like in between the high school and elementary school, but there just wasn’t enough space in those areas.
“It was really great. Even throughout the whole process, just the land portion of it, we’ve kept them in the loop through the design and making sure that the elevations are good for grading, and they have been really good to work with through the whole thing, so we are really appreciative to the school division.”
Jones says the community has been looking forward to seeing the new daycare completed.
“We’ve had lots of support. Any time I’m uptown, there is some community member that comes up and asks for a bit of an update, and just talking to some of the younger families in the area looking to get into the daycare, they are wondering when those extra spaces will be available so they can utilize the daycare. And then as far as organizations in the community, we are so appreciative to all the organizations in town. People are always thinking of ways that they can support us through different fundraisers or different ways they can include is. The community has been amazing.”
What does the daycare board need to do to get ready for their new building?
“We are going to need staff so we can welcome 90 kids into the new daycare,” says Jones. “We’ve been talking with (Playfair Daycare director) Terri Lowe and have given her the green light that we need to hire, hire, hire, and hopefully we can get some staff trained in the old building and then transition some experience into the new building.”
“It sounds like a home run to me, you are full right from the start and you are probably going to continue to be full,” says Swanson of the project’s future.
“One other thing we are really looking forward to is having the Kids’ Kollege and Playschool within the same building as the daycare. Now we have to walk our kids to over where the Playschool and Kids’ Kollege is, so it will be really nice to have it all within the same building,” says Jones.
“I feel once the daycare is open, it will fill up a lot faster than we think,” adds Miller. “I’m sure there are a lot of families that are working from home or not even on the waitlist that will be able to pursue different careers or job opportunities that they wouldn’t have been able to do before.”
Fundraising for the new build will be ongoing.
“We have the budget set around $4.5 million for a turn-key property,” says Jones. “And we’ve raised about $1.7 million through government and some community organizations have reached out to us already. We are standing up a group that will be specific to fundraising and really getting the word out and knocking on doors and giving the opportunity for the community to ask us questions and how we can benefit them, and then in turn how hopefully they can look to benefit this build.”
How does it feel to see the sod finally turn on the new building?
“We are very excited,” says Miller. “It feels like it has been a long time in the making. It feels good and exciting to finally see it kick off and we are excited that Rococo is taking the project on.”
Both Miller and Jones say anyone wanting to know more about the project or donate to the new daycare can go to their website at Playfairdaycare.com
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