Daycares busy as Sask. continues opening up

The second part of Phase 4 in Saskatchewan's reopening is set to roll ahead Monday. That's when libraries, museums, galleries and theatres are allowed to reopen.

For one Regina daycare provider, the more parents and guardians are returning to work, the more people she has to turn away. 

Kara Gurski, who runs a private day home, said she was closed for a couple months when the pandemic initially hit. She reopened June 1 for business as usual. 

"Since I've opened ... I've turned away more families than probably ever in my three years of doing daycare," she said on CBC Radio's The Morning Edition. 

Gurski said that since the plan for the upcoming school year could still change, there's a lot of uncertainty among parents about these upcoming months. 

"They may have lost spots at their child-care institutions that had been taken over by essential service workers and they're going back to work shortly at their offices and everybody is just at a loss as to where their school-aged children are going to go," she said.

Gurski said the government could look at changing its existing policy as a way to ease some strain on the system. 

"I think maybe the government might have to look at increasing daycare size regulation and allowing more room for school-aged children," she said.

Provincial guidelines around child care limit facilities to 15 children in one defined area. Children and staff should remain together as a group, there should be fewer toys and parents should not enter the facility unless absolutely necessary. 

Gurski said her day home pulled together pretty well as a community, but she is worried that if school plans change, parents could lose spots they thought they had. Parents going on parental leave could lose their spot if an existing customer's child doesn't end up going back to school full time. 

"It's unfortunate that the uncertainty still remains."