JohnQ offers municipalities a hand

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This article was published 31/08/2024 (261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A private board of municipal leaders is trying to get community projects done, together.

Twenty-three daycares are being opened with the help of JohnQ (JQ), since they started their initiative, with the first centres built in 2022. Now the board is focusing on senior housing.

Chris Ewen, executive for JQ and Mayor of the RM of Ritchot said the group is a way of helping municipalities get things done.

The projects JQ takes on are needed all around the province and are tough for each municipality to take on themselves.

“This collaborative team approach provides communities, large, small, rural, or northern a way to deliver on projects that couldn’t be done alone,” reads a line on JQ’s website.

The 23 daycares were announced for all around the province, including in Hanover, the RM and Town of Morris, Tache and two in Ritchot.

Ewen said JQ helps get these projects done by finding funding and grants and putting that provincial and federal money back into the community.

For example, he explained that Ritchot got the funding easier this way than on their own, and that it helped them open new childcare spots.

“With JQ behind us, they were able to secure the funding we needed from the federal and provincial government. They really facilitated the complete A to Z management of getting those daycares,” Ewen said. “From grants to final unlocking of the door.”

The board is made up of municipal leaders from the areas around Winnipeg, including Ewen, Tache Mayor Armand Poirier and Springfield Mayor Patrick Therrien.

In total, 12 municipalities are part of the board, but the daycares, and potential senior housing is for much more.

“As municipal leaders that are sitting around the JQ board, they really want to see everyone grow,” Ewen said. “I’m not into being a mayor for the money, I’m in here because I want to see everyone have an equal opportunity.”

He said the current senior housing project is still in the early stages of getting funding.

“There’s such a demand for daycares and that has always been there, and there’s always a huge waitlist,” Ewen said. “The demand for senior lifestyle has always been there as well, people want to stay in their hometown because that’s where they grew up in. That’s where they feel most comfortable.”

“We’re focusing on the demand of what our community members want.”

When the non-profit started in 2018, they focused on better internet and fibre optics in JQ municipalities. Ewen said the funding for that was more limited and they had to give up on the idea.

According to their website, JQ started through the provincial corporations act and was originally funded through $7,500 contributions from shareholders for their establishment.

It also says that there are no membership fees for the municipalities and that membership is voluntary.

The corporation has around four employees, who are paid by the original contributions and grants.

Ewen said that if people don’t know or trust what JQ does, they should call him, or the executive director and ask questions about why or what they are doing.

“I encourage people that if they do have curiosity, you can give me a call anytime and I love talking about this initiative,” said Ewen.

JQ is still working on opening the last of the daycares, which in total will reach 1,670 childcare spaces.