Parents are giving up their jobs as hundreds remain stuck on daycare waitlists in N.L.

Alexia Pardy always wanted to be a nurse.

"Straight out of high school, I applied," Pardy says, sitting among a plethora of wagons, trampolines and toys in her Conception Bay South backyard.

"That was part of my identity. That was part of who I thought I was, or wanted to be. Then I had to give it up."

Pardy applied to several daycare waitlists in 2022, when she discovered she was expecting her second child.

Today, over two years later, she still hasn't found a place that will take her toddler — leaving her no other option but to quit her job and give up her nursing licence.

Pardy isn't alone. Hundreds of families in need of child care in Newfoundland and Labrador are on at least one waitlist, according to a Department of Education survey that's been running since October.

Data obtained through an access-to-information request shows at least 1,783 out of 2,621 respondents — or 68 per cent — to the Child Care Demand Portal survey have attempted to find child care and, at the time of answering the survey, had not secured a spot.

More than 800 of those respondents are on more than five waitlists, while 181 respondents are on at least 21 lists.

The province launched the survey site last fall "as a tool to assess and understand the current demand for child-care services," a government press release said at the time.

"The information from this portal will assist us to better focus on where space creation is needed most and guide plans for targeted space creation."

The province has been under pressure to help daycare operators increase capacity since announcing $10-a-day regulated child care last year. Advocates said at the time that lower fees were already squeezing the available supply.

Education Minister Krista Lynn Howell refused an interview with CBC News for this story. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Lynn Robinson said the province is offering a $30-a-day infant incentive to daycare operators willing to accept younger children and recruiting internationally.

The department says more than 9,100 child-care spaces are currently operating for $10 a day across the province, with 2,200 more spaces in development.

But those spaces haven't helped Emma Whitt, a Mount Pearl mother of one, who found herself scrambling for a daycare spot when her stay-at-home partner received a full-time job offer.

With their plans in upheaval, Whitt called up to 30 daycares and private dayhomes in the metro St. John's area. Most, she says, weren't running waitlists any longer — leaving the possibility of landing a spot entirely up to chance.

"It's like if you call at the right time and there's a spot available, they'll accept you," Whitt says.

Whitt, a hairstylist, says she's been left with an impossible decision: quit her beloved career until her son finally lands reliable care or pay a babysitter by the hour to look after him while she's at work.

"I love my job," Whitt says.

"I always said I wanted to work when I had kids.… I love what I do, and if I had to step away from that I'd be heartbroken."

Whitt and Pardy each say they enjoy both their careers and motherhood but have been forced by circumstance to give up the former. They're now waiting in limbo without any hints at when they'll be able to return to work, their children safely looked after.

Both say there's an urgent need, especially in an era of high inflation that demands double-income households, to create more daycare spaces immediately.

"Right now you're just kind of taking anything you can get, because there's not many options for child care," Whitt says.

"I just refuse to take time away from my job. I don't think I should have to take away from my career." 

Pardy has taken to social media to encourage struggling parents to write to their MHAs and MPs to explain the hardships they've encountered as a direct result of unavailable daycare space. Maybe, she says, that's the key to change.

Whitt, too, says the provincial government needs to step up its efforts to incentivize daycare creation and early childhood education as a viable, well-paid career. She's imploring daycare operators and workers to lobby the government for support.

Until then, she's stuck — forced to call daycares repeatedly, biding her time until one says yes.

"I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't realize just how hard it would be," Whitt says.

"The $10-a-day daycare sounds great. It sounds lovely. But is it going to provide quality child care for the children of our province? I don't know."

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