REGINA — A major focus of Tuesday’s report from Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett was the audit of the Ministry of Education's processes to achieve accessibility outcomes in the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
Four recommendations came out of that audit into whether the province is meeting the targets laid out in the agreement. Saskatchewan must reach a 59 per cent child-care coverage rate by March 31, 2026 — or about 46,000 total licensed child-care spaces.
The report noted that as of March 2025 the coverage rate was 49 per cent province-wide. The ministry reported a total of 41,163 spaces, but that includes 7,635 still under development.
“Under the agreement's accessibility outcome, the ministry committed to increase the number of licensed child care spaces by 28,000 across the province by March 2026,” Clemett said. “Although it achieved about 84 per cent of these additional spaces at March 2025, the ministry still needed to create about 4,800 spaces as well as finalize the development of roughly 7,600 spaces before March 2026.”
Key issues identified
Clemett said the ministry needs better data tracking and analysis to guide decisions on allocating child-care spaces and managing early childhood educator supply. She noted the ministry has not consulted with post-secondary institutions to ensure enough students are enroled in early childhood educator training. She said the ministry also does not track the extent to which approved spaces are being used.
“More robust collection and analysis of key data would help determine whether child care is truly accessible across Saskatchewan and whether the ministry is meeting the intent of the agreement,” Clemett said.
The auditor also found that 694 new spaces were underutilized, suggesting that spaces may be getting approved in areas with low demand or insufficient qualified educators.
She explained what kind of data would help improve decision-making.
“Some of the areas would be around, right now, for example: unmet demand. So they are choosing not to obtain some waitlist information that would probably give them good information around ‘where do we have waitlists across the province and therefore where should they be funnelling the funding to support childcare space.’”
She said the ministry needs to analyze situations where spaces go unused.
“So if you have a coverage rate or the number of spaces that have been created in Regina are getting where you don’t have a lot of waitlists and you have a lot of spaces that are not being utilized, that isn’t probably where you would want to continue to funnel money in the future. And given this agreement has now been extended for the next five years until 2031, definitely something I think they have to think about and utilize.”
Reporting gaps and funding concerns
Clemett said another issue is that while the ministry reports progress to senior management, the federal government and the public, it “does not track and report all key information required under the agreement.”
“For example, while the ministry has some information on unmet demand, it doesn't analyze or report waitlist data from childcare providers. Without this, it risks approving new spaces in areas of the province that may not have the greatest need. Such information would also show the federal government whether a significant number of families are waiting for child care in certain communities.”
She also said the ministry needs a sustainable funding model for licensed child care.
“Without adequate and reliable funding, providers may have to change their quality of care, seek cost savings, or close, thereby limiting access to child care. Continued collaboration between the ministry, the childcare providers and the federal government will be key to finalizing a sustainable funding model and strengthening data analysis to ensure accessible childcare spaces are sufficiently created around the province to support families and communities.”
