Century-old Ioco School one step closer to becoming a childcare centre

Port Moody’s century-old Ioco School is a step closer to welcoming children through its doors again — just not as a school this time.

On July 28, council unanimously approved permits to transform the long-vacant heritage building into a 150-space child care centre, clearing the way for the Coquitlam School District to move toward the building permit stage.

The project is backed by $13.9 million from the province’s ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund — a meaningful expansion for local families in a city where daycare space has been genuinely hard to come by.

What to watch next: timelines for the building permit stage and construction, and when the first of the 150 new spaces might actually open. (Reporting draws on original coverage by Patrick Penner, Tri-Cities Dispatch.)