Province offering incentives to open home daycares

The provincial government is counting on new grants to encourage more Islanders to open up home daycares across P.E.I. 

The province is offering up to $15,000 for necessary home renovations, furniture and equipment, along with $8,000 for programming costs and more infant spaces. 

The grants will come out of the $10.5 million in child-care funding handed down from Ottawa last summer. 

Carolyn Simpson, director of early childhood development for the Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture, says the province wants to provide more access to child care, particularly in rural areas. 

'Quite viable for a family'

"In some of the rural parts of the province, larger centres, and by that I mean centres that operate perhaps with 50 children or thereabouts, they aren't as viable or there just simply isn't the population. But there could be the option for a licensed family child-care centre that could be quite viable for a family." 

The province is hoping to add 14 licensed home centres before the end of 2019. Currently, there are just two running on P.E.I. The grants may also encourage unlicensed home daycares to make the switch, Simpson said.

Information sessions will be held across the province in December, Simpson said.

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