REGINA – The province provided an update Thursday with respect to the extended agreement for $10 a day child care, with measures on the way which the province says will support its long term viability.
Minister of Education Everett Hindley met the media to discuss the next steps in the extended new Canada – Saskatchewan Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement which took effect on April 1. The province says it is now 92 per cent of the way to meeting the goal of creating 28,000 new regulated child care spaces in Saskatchewan.
But at a news conference at the Legislature Hindley noted the “cost to operate and sustain a significantly larger number of regulated spaces has also increased. The federal funding under the agreement is not sufficient to meet the long-term costs of the expanded system and other provinces have stated this as well.”
As a result Hindley said there will be some measures that will be implemented starting July 1.This will include:
- Redirecting some existing funding for tuition-free ECE training to core operating costs for child care facilities. The province will continue to focus on ECE Level 1 training to encourage entry into the workforce, and on leadership training which will be delivered through the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Association.
- Additional child care space development will be strategically targeted to areas in need. HIndley said a significant number of spaces are currently in development and are expected to become operational in the next year.
- Moving forward, the standard hours of child care service will be defined as 10 hours of care per day. Hindley said establishing a standard 10-hour day clarifies what is included in core child care services and gives the flexibility to operators charge for care provided beyond 10 hours per day if they choose.
- the Ministry of Education will be implementing a maximum monthly Parent Fee Reduction Grant based on enrollment and aligned with the number and types of licensed spaces. Facilities can still serve additional families within their regulated capacity by sharing spaces and collecting the parent fee of $10 a day. But government grants will not be provided for enrollment that exceeds the total number of licensed spaces in that facility.
- The Ministry will also be sharing a child care operations policy framework with guidance on potential additional revenue streams that providers can use to supplement government funding.
- The province will also be increasing grants for child care facilities with the lowest fees. The Ministry of Education will increase child care fee schedules for facilities with the lowest child care fees effective July 1, to address the funding gap between new and legacy operators. Those facilities will be contacted directly starting in May and the fee schedules will be automatically adjusted for those operators effective July 1.
Hindley said the Ministry of Education is providing communication to child care providers starting today. An email is going out to all the child care providers across the sector this morning, and there will be a series of engagement sessions with child care providers starting in the coming days.
There will be virtual Q&A sessions and information sessions for the sector “where they can get information from the officials and directly from the consultants so everybody understands what's happening and also an opportunity to ask any specific questions. We know there's a lot of operators out there across the province of various sizes and in capacity so each of these is a little bit different and unique and we want to make sure that the operators and families and communities have every opportunity as early as possible.”
Minister Hindley emphasized that the reason for the changes is to keep it sustainable. He said that while the new child care agreement includes a three per cent annual escalator beginning in 2027-2028, there is no increase in federal funding for Saskatchewan in the current 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The agreement also includes a yearly federal adjustment that calculates funding based on Saskatchewan's growth in the population of young children compared to other provinces and territories, but the province says Saskatchewan may not necessarily see an overall increase in federal funding, even with that escalator in place.
“So given these realities, Saskatchewan, like other jurisdictions, is shifting from a period of rapid expansion towards what we're now framing as a period of stabilization and sustainability in the sector,” Hindley said. “Our focus now is on protecting and sustaining the child care system that we have built over the past number of years. The actions we are taking are designed to safeguard the child care program and to ensure the long-term viability of regulated child care in Saskatchewan.”
NDP slams changes
In response to the announcement, NDP child care critic Joan Pratchler slammed the changes.
She called the announcement “disrespectful to child care providers, centres, families, parents who have to rely on accessible, affordable child care. It flies in the face of what $10 child care with the spirit and intent of that agreement was, and it is riddled with cuts in every level. This is dismantling child care.”
As for why Pratchler thought it was disrespectful to child care providers, she said the government “had five years to talk to them, and he hasn't.”
“And I'm getting emails and texts and everything as we speak about who we don't know more about, and why aren't we at the table. Do our voices not matter? They know what needs to happen to make it better, and they're not being listened to. That's disrespectful.”
As for the specific changes, Pratchler pointed to items that she calls cuts.
“So they are only going to fund now the ECEs, which is level one, that's the entry level, and they're not going to be funding the training for twos and threes, the next two levels. We're not going to be able to retain a workforce like that. So that's not okay. They also put a line in there that there's going to be a provision for suggestions for alternate revenue sources. Bake sales and hot dog sales are not alternate revenue sources for a child care system.”
As for Hindley’s contention this is about making ensuring the funding is sustainable, Pratchler said the Minister “might want to understand that almost every other province is putting their own funding into it in addition. So, Saskatchewan hasn't put in their ante at all. That's part of the problem.”
Pratchler also took issue with the cap of 10 hours. “Well, that flies in the face of 12-hour shift workers. And it's just adding more to the strain and length that providers have and that parents have added. This is just not going to end well if it continues like this.”
