Early childhood education workers say they're seeing progress, but sector still needs more staff

Janessa Williams says she's thankful for improvements to child care in Nova Scotia, but she also knows how far there is to go.

Williams, executive director of the Needham Early Learning Centre in Halifax, was on hand Friday as federal and provincial officials announced an update to their joint plan for reaching an average cost of $10 per day for daycare by March of 2026.

Those steps, announced by Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jenna Sudds and Nova Scotia Education Minister Becky Druhan, include more money to reduce parent fees and create more spaces and funding for an inclusive early learning and child-care strategy.

The $605-million federal-provincial deal signed in 2021 has helped cut parent fees in half, expand the number of spaces in the province and improve working conditions for early childhood educators (ECEs) through wage increases, funding for continued education and the creation of a benefits plan.

And while those are all welcomed steps in the right direction, Williams said the government needs to continue to increase wages for early childhood educators so they "meet or exceed the living wage."

"This is critical for attracting and retaining ECEs," she told reporters.

Government-funded fee reductions have made child care more affordable for most families, but Williams said demand has also increased and that's resulted in waitlists that are difficult to manage.

"We need more child-care spaces and more ECEs to provide early learning and care that meets the needs of our families."

Amanda Reyes is experiencing that frustration first hand.

Reyes, an ECE and program coordinator at Needham, said her family is facing long waitlists as they try to get their son into before- and after-school care when he starts elementary school in the fall.

"I have been working for months to try to secure a space for him and this has created a lot of worry and stress for our family."

Reyes said the government seems committed to building a system that is affordable, accessible and inclusive, but child care is still not available to many families in the province.

Druhan said she believes the wage bumps, the creation of a benefits plan and continued efforts to fund education should go a long way to addressing ECE shortages.

"Those and a variety of other actions are bringing people back to the workforce, but it will take time for that to come to fruition," she told reporters.

Druhan said the province is on target to complete fee reductions by March 2026, although she did not indicate that there would be any further fee cuts before that.

"If we can deliver anything early we always will."

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, who was part of the previous government that signed the original child-care deal with Ottawa, said the increase in wages and benefits should help bring  more workers into the sector, but he said he thinks more people need to be trained.

The former government expanded ECE seats at the Nova Scotia Community College and Churchill said he thinks the Tory government should do the same.

New Democrat MLA Suzy Hansen said that, at a minimum, ECEs need to be paid a living wage.

"If we want to encourage and recruit more people to be in that field of work, we need to pay them accordingly," she told reporters. 

Both Churchill and Hansen called on the province to allow private operators to create more spaces. 

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