Hours & Fees

🌲 IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM MOUSEWOOD 🌲

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Dear Mousewood Families,

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We want to share some important changes as Mousewood adapts to meet the realities of this moment while keeping our vision for children alive.

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Our original intent was to license 3 programs for 8 children each:

1. Full-time forest and nature childcare for 3–5 year olds

2. Full-time infant toddler care,

3. Preschool and school-age programs.

 

Unfortunately, government funding decisions and city decisions have made it impossible to operate as originally planned.​ Rather than close our doors, we are making adjustments so that Mousewood can continue to serve children and families with our unique model of care.

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Despite strong interest at the start, enrolment hasn’t matched what families told us they wanted.

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Our Necessary Licence Structure: 2 Licensed Programs

1. Chickadee Nest  (Upstairs):   Licensed for 8 spaces

   • Infant-Toddler program for 2 children. 

     • Forest School Lite

   • Preschoolers:   

     • 6 children - Forest School

     • Mousewood Mornings Forest & Nature School Program- (Mon/Thu or Tue/Fri)

     • Part-time Care – Full-days Mon/Thu or Tue/Fri

     • Full-time Mon - Fri

2. The Bunny Burrow (Downstairs):   Licensed for 4 Spaces 

   • Infant-Toddler program for 3 children

     • Forest School Lite

 

• Possible future Homeschool Wednesdays off-site for 5-8 children— 3 hours; AM and PM

 

 

FEE STRUCTURE CHANGES

We are introducing changes in the fee schedule effective SEPTEMBER 1, 2025.

 

​Our original full-time fee was $1800 for all full-time children, any time between 6:45 am and 6:00 pm, M - F.

It would apply to all 8 children in our licensed programs. Each program would have 3+ educators per 8 children.

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Our new fee schedule is tiered, with optional hours.

We want to be transparent about why this is happening.

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The Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI) is a government subsidy program for all families enrolled in an accepted daycare. In order for the parents to receive the subsidy, the daycare itself must apply for and be accepted into the CCFRI program. At Mousewood, we need to be able to offer the CCFRI to our families.

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The CCFRI program set strictly capped monthly childcare fees called “benchmarks” for all childcare facilities in the CCFRI program. These capped benchmark fees apply to any CCFRI programs operating more than 4 hours per day with the minimum required staff. These benchmarks are not even adjusted for programs offering 9-13 hours of care, or additional educators for quality.

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Mousewood offers long hours for parents, small classes, and has always staffed above the minimum because we believe children deserve safe, inclusive, high-quality care — especially in a forest and nature school setting. However, this means our costs are higher while government support is lower.

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Our initial application to the CCFRI program was declined at the end of July. We appealed to the highest CCFRI panel to allow us to be in the CCFRI program while keeping our fees at $1800 monthly.  We were informed that to be in the CCFRI program, we must cap our fees at their “benchmark,” and then use “optional add-on fees” to meet our $1800 monthly fee. Rather ridiculous.

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To keep access to CCFRI for families, we have had no choice but to restructure our fees into a “Choose Your Own Fees” 5 tiered model based on attendance hours. This allows families to still access subsidies while ensuring Mousewood can cover staffing and operating costs.

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To be clear, in order to stay open, we have had to adjust our fee schedule so that:

• Families can access CCFRI reductions where possible.

• Mousewood can cover the real costs of staffing and safe ratios, all day, for all children.

• Mousewood can cover overhead and supplies while only being able to run at a maximum of half our anticipated capacity.

 

We understand this is frustrating.

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We wish the CCFRI funding model supported innovative, inclusive programs like Mousewood more fully, that the city hadn't halted our program expansion, and that the government hadn't cut start-up funding to new programs.

But here we are.

 

These changes are necessary to keep the doors open and ensure we can continue providing childcare with our unique model.

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We will continue to apply for grants and pursue charity status in order to receive sponsorship to reduce the fees of childcare spaces.

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We know these changes are not easy, and we are deeply grateful for your patience, trust, and continued support. Mousewood exists because of families who believe in this unique childcare alternative, and together we can nurture something truly special for the children of Prince George.

 

With gratitude,
💚 The Mousewood Team

 

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