REGINA - The provincial government is under pressure for not yet signing on to a five-year extension of $10 a day childcare with the federal government.
In Question Period Tuesday, opposition New Democrats raised the issue again, with Opposition critic Brittney Senger pointing to concerns of child care workers worried about their jobs. She asked why a deal that was good enough for 11 other provinces and territories was not good enough for the Sask Party.
In response Education Minister Everett Hindley reaffirmed several times that the government was committed to getting a child care agreement done.
“As we have discussed in this House several times, this government remains committed to negotiating with the federal government post-April 28th, whoever that happens to be, with respect to the future of this program, Mr. Speaker,” Hindley said. “And that is something that I had expressed to the previous ministers of Jobs and Families federally, both the minister at the time and then the minister who was appointed just prior to the drop of the writ. And I’d indicated twice in letters, and verbally as well, and at the officials level that we are interested in making sure that we negotiate a deal for Saskatchewan.”
In speaking to reporters, Hindley indicated he did not expect a deal would get done until after the federal election April 28.
“So, certainly if there was to be a deal presented to us or they were to reach out to us to say, hey, we want to negotiate, we would certainly be willing to be at the table with them. But I just, I don't expect that there will be any of that until we have some clarity on April 28th.”
Hindley did point to one source of frustration from his discussions with the federal government: that there was a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers and officials back earlier in the fall and this issue of $10 a day child care had not been on the agenda.
It wasn't until Feb. 6th that they got a letter that stated the federal government wanted it signed off by Feb. 21.
“And I think that caught us off guard and made it to, you know, saying that we had to sign this within two weeks. And we're saying we haven't had any opportunity to really negotiate improvements to this deal. So that's where we are where we're at today.”
As for what the government was seeking, Hindley spoke of looking to address some of the challenges seen under the previous agreement, which still has a year to run until 2026.
“When this agreement was signed, there was funding that the province of Saskatchewan, all provinces would have negotiated an agreement on in terms of what that would look like, how it would be dispersed to daycares, and how we try to achieve this average of $10 a day daycare, and within that are some challenges, I think, that have been identified over the life of the agreement,” said Hindley.
Hindley indicated they wanted “to be able to look at some improvements to it to make sure that we are trying to find ways" to address some of the challenges, whether it is "the funding gaps that are there, or other challenges that have been identified with the existing arrangement.”
He acknowledged one challenge when $10 a day child care was launched was “just how is this going to be applied equitably to all the daycares that are out there. And in addition to that, trying to reach the expansion of the number of daycare spaces to reach those targets..."
“So I think that is one of the things that we want to have those conversations with the federal government on it. I have been hearing from the daycare sector. I've talked to groups like SECA, the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Association, as well, who have expressed some concerns, some ideas, some feedback for us. That's what SECA has expressed to me. So those are the nature of the conversations we want to have.”
HIndley also acknowledged to reporters the concerns from some of the operators in the sector that the “dollars aren't there to make sure that they can keep their businesses viable.”
“I know that there have been conversations happening with some of these operators, with the officials in the Ministry of Education to better understand what their individual challenges might be and how we can potentially help with what we currently have available to us. So there are those conversations happening, yes.”
Hindley also pointed to other provinces, noting Alberta also hasn't signed on and that Nova Scotia has now asked for some revisions to the agreement they recently signed “because they felt that they, you know, did so, perhaps, signed it hastily.”
“I think it's incumbent on us as Saskatchewan, again, with a year to go in this agreement, to try and figure out and say, OK, how can we make sure that we get an agreement that works for Saskatchewan, whether it's for families, whether it's for the government of Saskatchewan, whether it's for our childcare operators? So that's why we're taking the position.“
