Sewer break shutters south Winnipeg daycare

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This article was published 18/03/2024 (538 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some south Winnipeg children have been washed out of their daycare for days and they don’t know when they’ll get back after an underground sewer pipe broke.

Parents of children at the Waverley Heights Child Care, located inside the South Winnipeg Community Centre’s Waverley site at 1885 Chancellor Dr., were called on Wednesday to pick up their children after a city sewer pipe collapsed, resulting in a loss of water service in the building.

Now the parents have been told the daycare and community centre will continue to be closed for an indeterminate amount of time this coming week.

A notice on the community centre’s website says the site is closed until further notice.

“Despite our efforts to accommodate events and programs through temporary measures, the City of Winnipeg has instructed us to close the facility for public safety,” the notice says.

“We understand the frustration this may cause to all our distinguished members who had events booked in advance… we appreciate your understanding during this unforeseen circumstance.”

But one of the parents affected by the daycare closure, Lindsay Sawyer Fay, says she can’t help but become frustrated. Sawyer Fay said on Saturday that her five-year-old daughter, Carrie-James, has missed almost three days of daycare.

“I’ve had to take my daughter to work,” she said about what happened on part of Thursday and again on Friday. “Now we are being told it will now be sometime next week until they get the water back up and running.

“But there are families who don’t have the flexibility we have and there could be income costs.”

Sawyer Fay said when she or her husband drop their daughter off at daycare in the morning and head to work, it is the daycare which takes the child to and from kindergarten, so without it being open parents have also had to figure out how to get children to school.

She said no excavation work is being done at the site over the weekend because the city has to get Manitoba Hydro to mark where any underground electrical or gas lines are before crews can begin digging to see how extensive the pipe damage is and what has to be done to repair it.

A spokesperson for the daycare and the community centre could not be reached for comment.

Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West), who represents the area and is also chairwoman of the civic public works committee which oversees sewer and water issues, said the collapse is located where it is the city’s responsibility, not the community centre’s.

“We don’t know how long the community centre and the daycare will be closed until the ground is opened up and crews assess the situation,” Lukes said.

“We don’t know.”

Lukes said they will know more on Monday and she will post an update on her website and Facebook page.

“I know this is a major inconvenience and I apologize,” she said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca