N.S. fails to meet pledge of adding 1,500 new daycare spaces by end of 2022
Province says 400 new licensed daycare spaces created between July 2021 and Dec. 31 2022
Daycare operators in Nova Scotia say they're not surprised that the province failed to meet its self-imposed target of creating 1,500 new daycare spots by the end of 2022.
Instead, the Nova Scotia government says that 400 new licensed daycare spaces were created between July 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022.
Last June, Education Minister Becky Druhan said the province would create 1,500 new daycare spots within six months, funded in part by a $605-million daycare agreement between the province and the federal government.
"I predicted that they wouldn't be able to hit it," Bonnie Minard, executive director of the Portland Daycare Centre in Dartmouth, said in a recent interview.
Under regulations that are tied to the federal daycare agreement, private licensed daycare centres like hers are unable to expand and open up new spaces for children, she said. The province said in June 2021 that the 1,500 new spaces would be created in not-for-profit centres or with home-care providers.
"No private operator can create a new spot, and I know several that would look to expand because the demand is just huge," Minard said. "We have people who call begging for spots and we can't accommodate them."
Jodi Tsitouras, executive director of Magic Beings Child Care Centre in Halifax, said she has the staff and the physical space to immediately add seven daycare spots at her centre, but she said she isn't allowed to.
"It's frustrating; our hands are tied," Tsitouras said in an interview Tuesday.
Barbara Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, said in an email that supply chain and labour pressures have caused the delay in adding the promised spots and that the promised 1,500 new spaces should be created this year.
The department did not immediately respond when asked if the province would adjust regulations to allow private child-care centres to create more daycare spots.
In addition to the 400 new licensed daycare places that were added between July 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022, Ferguson said the province also created 600 new before- and after-school spots, funded through the agreement with Ottawa.
NDP education spokesperson Suzy Hansen said she's disappointed in the province's progress toward meeting its child-care goal.
"It's just not good enough," Hansen said in a recent interview. "I mean, why make a promise of 1,500 if you're not even close to that number? These are not enough spaces."
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta-Canadian Press News Fellowship, which is not involved in the editorial process.