Daycare workers want Sask. government to sign federal funding agreement

Saskatchewan daycare operators say they're frustrated with the province for not yet signing on to extend the $10-a-day child-care deal set to expire next year.

"We need answers as to why the government hasn't signed a new federal child-care agreement that would guarantee funding for the child-care industry for the next five years," said Cara Werner with the Southeast Saskatchewan Directors Association, which represents 25 daycare centres.

Child-care workers and daycare operators met at the provincial legislature Monday to share a growing list of concerns ranging from the lack of equitable, stable funding, to stagnant operating grants, to a lack of dental and health insurance for workers.

"We still don't have access to health and dental coverage, a pension plan and many centres do not have paid sick time," said Nicole Wall, a child-care worker at Play and Discover Early Learning Centre in Regina.

In 2021, the federal government announced a $30-billion, five-year child-care plan to create 250,000 new affordable spaces. It said the plan would cut the costs of those spaces to $10 a day by 2025-26, when the federal government began providing a minimum of $9.2 billion annually for the program. Saskatchewan signed on to that plan.

Other provinces and territories have now signed on to a new federal child-care agreement that will see them split nearly $37 billion, extending the program until 2031. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only holdouts.

"I don't know what the hold up is," said Joan Pratchler, NDP child care and early learning critic.

"What I do know is, it's a really tenuous precarious situation for families. It's not OK."

Province wants to negotiate

The province responded to daycare workers' concerns with an emailed statement.

"An extension to the negotiation should mean listening to operators to make improvements to the agreement so they can be beneficial for children, operators, and our governments for years to come."

The statement also said negotiations should include the ability to address before and after school programs, and the terms of other provincial early learning child-care agreements. 

Werner said the existing patchwork system of grants is also failing to adequately fund daycares, which are seeing their costs for food and salaries go up while funding remains stagnant. 

"We haven't had an operating grant increase since 2021," she said.

"All of those grants that they're giving us are allotted for something very specific, so the reality is that centres could go under and not be able to stay afloat and have tens of thousands of dollars in their bank account because it's allotted for something else."

We now may not be able to open the doors.- Jenna Grey-Osicki

The province's delay in extending the agreement has created uncertainty for daycare operators, including many in the town of Sedley, 54 kilometres southeast of Regina, where the community is working to open a child-care centre.

"People need to be able to hire staff, to have the infrastructure in place. You can't offer something for three years then  wipe your hands of it. That's not how it works. Otherwise it's for nothing," said Jenna Grey-Osicki, one of the people working to get the centre opened.

"It's a great thing and we now may not be able to open the doors."