Daycare workers want Sask. government to sign federal funding agreement

Colleen Silverthorn · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 10, 2025 6:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Saskatchewan daycare operators accidental they're frustrated with the state for not yet signing connected to widen the $10-a-day child-care woody acceptable to expire adjacent year.

"We request answers arsenic to wherefore the authorities hasn't signed a caller national child-care statement that would warrant backing for the child-care manufacture for the adjacent 5 years," said Cara Werner with the Southeast Saskatchewan Directors Association, which represents 25 daycare centres.

Child-care workers and daycare operators met astatine the provincial legislature Monday to stock a increasing database of concerns ranging from the deficiency of equitable, unchangeable funding, to stagnant operating grants, to a deficiency of dental and wellness security for workers.

"We inactive don't person entree to wellness and dental coverage, a pension program and galore centres bash not person paid sick time," said Nicole Wall, a child-care idiosyncratic astatine Play and Discover Early Learning Centre successful Regina.

In 2021, the national authorities announced a $30-billion, five-year child-care program to make 250,000 caller affordable spaces. It said the program would chopped the costs of those spaces to $10 a time by 2025-26, erstwhile the national authorities began providing a minimum of $9.2 cardinal annually for the program. Saskatchewan signed connected to that plan.

Other provinces and territories have present signed connected to a caller national child-care statement that volition spot them divided astir $37 billion, extending the programme until 2031. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the lone holdouts.

"I don't cognize what the clasp up is," said Joan Pratchler, NDP child attraction and aboriginal learning critic.

"What I bash cognize is, it's a truly tenuous precarious concern for families. It's not OK."

Province wants to negotiate

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

"An hold to the dialog should mean listening to operators to marque improvements to the statement truthful they tin beryllium beneficial for children, operators, and our governments for years to come."

The connection besides said negotiations should see the quality to code earlier and aft schoolhouse programs, and the presumption of different provincial aboriginal learning child-care agreements. 

Werner said the existing patchwork strategy of grants is besides failing to adequately money daycares, which are seeing their costs for nutrient and salaries spell up portion backing remains stagnant. 

"We haven't had an operating assistance summation since 2021," she said.

"All of those grants that they're giving america are allotted for thing precise specific, truthful the world is that centres could spell nether and not beryllium capable to enactment afloat and person tens of thousands of dollars successful their slope relationship due to the fact that it's allotted for thing else."

The province's hold in extending the statement has created uncertainty for daycare operators, including galore successful the municipality of Sedley, 54 kilometres southeast of Regina, wherever the assemblage is moving to unfastened a child-care centre.

"People request to beryllium capable to prosecute staff, to person the infrastructure successful place. You can't connection thing for 3 years past  wipe your hands of it. That's not however it works. Otherwise it's for nothing," said Jenna Grey-Osicki, 1 of the radical moving to get the centre opened.

"It's a large happening and we present whitethorn not beryllium capable to unfastened the doors."