Premier willing to discuss $10-a-day child-care terms as daycares push back

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says he's committed to $10-a-day daycare and is also willing to sit down with private operators to hear their concerns and possibly scrap some of the terms they're being asked to agree to in order to receive funding.

"We all have the same goal, which is lower fees per family, better wages for those working in the industry and high-quality daycare," Houston said on Thursday.

Private daycares are being asked to convert to non-profit status, or become part of the Canada-Nova Scotia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement signed with Ottawa. Those that do not have been told they will forfeit all government funding.

Child-care centres initially had until mid-March to decide, but the education minister said this week that it not a hard deadline. Some have said they have worked years to build their businesses and don't want to give that up. Others say the province has provided too little information for them to make a choice.

The child-care agreement was signed this summer by the previous Liberal government and is aimed at significantly cutting fees. Ottawa will spend $605 million over five years and the provincial government will add another $40 million, on top of what it currently spends on the sector.

"We're looking at the agreements," Houston said. "We'll be talking to the federal government as necessary. We're looking at the agreements that other provinces have."

Houston said there's a way for the province to "de-escalate the time crunch that was there, so we take the time to work with them to see what's possible."

Private operators want to maintain control

Lisa Beddow, owner of Friends for Life child-care centres in Nova Scotia, said private operators want to maintain full control of their business.

"If [the government] wants to subsidize the spaces, they can pass that rate along to parents," Beddow said.

Beddow said the deal Alberta has with the federal government would work better.

"They can still control everything that has to do with their own business. These are female entrepreneurs that have built this business 30, 40 years in this province," Beddow said.

Beddow said the current option would take away the freedom to hire and fire staff, and operators would lose control over wait-lists.

Beddow said she still needs to understand the agreement the province made. She fears that if the province moves forward with this plan, private child-care operators would stop accepting funding from the government and provide service to the highest bidder.

"Our lower income families lose that choice of where to go, we wouldn't be able to offer that care, not mention inclusion spots. We have inclusion support for each of our centres in the province and we would lose that funding as well," she said.

Beddow said the whole idea behind $10-a-day child care was to get more women back to work, but she said the current agreement would actually make it more expensive if operators decide to stop government funding all together.