Peel marks 50 years of early years and child care services

Region shares stories of two long-term employees

By ZACHARY ROMAN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Region of Peel marked its 50th anniversary in 2024. 

It also marked the 50th anniversary of its Early Years and Child Care Services (EYCCS), and recently shared the stories of two of its long-term employees to celebrate the occasion. 

Tammy Birdgeneau, a Children's Services Worker on Peel's Child Care Subsidy Team, worked for the Region while studying at Sheridan College and graduated in 1985. In 1987, she began working for Peel full-time. 

Johanna Irvine is an Early Years Specialist on Peel's system quality and partnerships team. She also worked for Peel while she studied; she went to Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson University). 

She started working for Peel in a casual role in 1997 before landing a full-time position. 

When Peel was founded in 1974, it delivered child care through its regional child development centres. These were later renamed Learn.Play.Care Centres. The region also developed agreements with some private child care centres. 

Irvine said the centres were a great model for what an ideal child care program should be. She put her own daughter in one of the programs, and said she was always proud to work for them.

In 2014, Peel stopped directly delivering child care and transferred operation of the child development centres to community partners. Irvine said it was a chance to empower Peel's community partners and service providers.

“It is great to be able to support from the accountability and quality lens, and the funding perspective, to support providers to deliver services that are more accessible broadly to families in Peel,” said Irvine.

Peel's population has grown immensely and become much more diverse since 1974. Peel provides child care subsidies to families, and the number of subsidies provided has grown alongside the region. 

In 1998, subsidies were given to around 2,000 families. At present, almost 7,000 families receive help from Peel's subsidy program. 

“Our goal has always been to make services more accessible. Peel itself has grown and evolved significantly, and I think as a service system manager we've always had a focus of trying to meet the needs of an ever-evolving system,” said Irvine.

Birdgeneau said it's great that there are so many child care options for Peel families these days. 

“Now there are more choices, and there are a lot more options and most people have choices in their neighborhood — they don't have to drive that far, so in those terms it's more accessible,” she said. “When I look back at how far we've come, I can't imagine how much more growth there's going to be in the future.”

Irvine said she looks forward to continuing to work to meet the needs of Peel children and families. 

“Children and family needs have become more complex, there are more things to consider, a lot of diversity… so I'd love to see that ability to continue to evolve and change to meet the needs of the community,” said Irvine.

Irvine began working in early years and child care because her mother worked in the field and she saw how rewarding it could be.

“It's really rewarding to work with children, to see the development of children over the years. Knowing that the activities we plan, the interactions, the attachment and all those things are so fundamental to the foundation of their learning journey through to adults,” said Irvine. “...I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to support children and families directly, supporting educators, operators, and the system as a whole, from a policy lens.”

Birdgeneau said she loves working with Peel's diverse children and families. 

“I love what I do. I love the interactions and connections I make with the clients on my caseload. I get to offer resources for newcomers that come, just being able to help them transition and acclimatize themselves into the Region of Peel and the community,” she said.