APRIL 25, 2024, KJPUKTUK/HALIFAX (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) – Child Care Now Nova Scotia is very concerned to learn that Minister Becky Druhan, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, has petitioned the federal government to allow the Province of Nova Scotia to provide federal funding to expand for-profit child care centres.
Nova Scotia’s ELCC existing five-year funding agreement with the Government of Canada stipulates that federal transfers must be used to support the expansion of non-profit child care services to meet the agreed-to objective of creating a primarily non-profit Canada-Wide ELCC system.
“We vigorously oppose Nova Scotia’s retreat from its signed commitment to use federal transfers to build a primarily non-profit system of early learning and child care because public dollars should be used to expand child care programs and services, not profits,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now, Canada’s national child care advocacy association.
There is significant evidence that the quality of non-profit child care programs is generally higher because they put all public funding into service-provision without diverting any of it to profit-making. For-profit centres lack community oversight, and because they are private businesses they can close suddenly, removing publicly-funded assets from the community, leaving families without child care and educators without work.
“While many families across Nova Scotia face long waitlists, we know parents want high quality care for their children and future generations to have enriching and educational early learning opportunities that support their development,” says Kenya Thompson, Coordinator of Child Care Now Nova Scotia. “Using public money to expand for-profit early learning and child care is not a sustainable solution. We need a much stronger effort and investment by the provincial government to expand non-profit and public provision of services.”
Child Care Now Nova Scotia calls on the provincial government to accelerate the implementation of its promised plan to increase the provision of non-profit child care facilities. This should include actively finding public lands on which to build, making sure that new housing developments include child care, and acting on its previous promise to create an agency of some kind to coordinate and assist in the development of new programs across Nova Scotia. “Nova Scotia has promised to create a sustainable child care system, using public funds to provide quality care and early learning opportunities to its children, in safe and supportive working environments for educators and now they must take action not back away,” says Thompson. “It is very disappointing the Nova Scotia government wants to divert public funding to support more for-profit facilities rather than build a system that families can rely on.” Child Care Now Nova Scotia calls on Minister Beck Druhan and the Province of Nova Scotia to take back their ask, and urges the federal government to not be swayed off course.
Child Care Now Nova Scotia advocates for a universal, comprehensive, publicly funded, high quality, affordable, accessible, accountable, and not-for-profit Early Learning and Child Care system in Nova Scotia.