An incident involving more than half a dozen children, a child-care provider, and a nail salon has the community of Maple Ridge abuzz and has now led to multiple investigations.

Originally shared on one of Maple Ridge's community Facebook groups on Aug. 20, a picture by a local person shows several children standing outside of a nail salon on Dewdney Trunk Road without any adult within the vicinity. 

The woman who shared the photo explained in her post that the caretaker of the children was inside the nail salon sitting at one of the tables with her daughter while the kids remained just outside of the salon entrance.

Ridge Meadows RCMP, which conducted an investigation into the matter after receiving a complaint, confirmed that the child-care provider did go inside of the salon without the kids.

"Police spoke with involved parties and have now verified via CCTV that the daycare provider did enter the nail salon and promptly left within three minutes," said the Ridge Meadows RCMP media unit. 

"The children outside the nail salon were in the line of sight of the daycare provider for that time. Police have determined that there was no risk to the children and that no Criminal Code offence was committed."

The RCMP weren't the only ones to investigate the incident, with a complaint also being submitted to Fraser Health, which is in charge of investigating child care facilities for the Fraser Health region.

Fraser Health senior communications consultant Amory Wong explained that the organization was currently conducting an investigation into the unlicensed operator involved in this incident.

Although Wong didn't confirm the identity of the individual, he did say that the person has been the subject of prior Fraser Health investigations.

"We previously completed an unrelated investigation regarding the same operator, who agreed to comply with the Community Care and Assisted Living Act at that time," said Wong.

According to Fraser Health, a Community Care Facilities Licence is required for anyone who provides care to three or more children who are not related to them by blood or marriage.

"Fraser Health licensing officers will conduct an onsite inspection or inspections to determine if a section of the legislation has been contravened," said Wong. "An operator found to be operating an unlicensed facility must reduce to two children or stop operating."

The Community Care and Assisted Living Act also says that anyone who is not in compliance with the outlined regulations is liable to a fine of up to $10,000.