Excerpts
Meghan Croft found herself scrambling just a month before school started this year when the daycare her six-year-old daughter attended before and after school told her they no longer had room.
Croft, a single mother and an early childhood educator (ECE) herself, had no luck finding a new daycare on such short notice.
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"Anyone right now with the way the economy is would struggle with having to have an extra $800 to pay a month, let alone a single mother," said Croft.
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While the province is working toward increasing publicly funded child care following a 2021 funding deal with Ottawa, most workers in the system can't afford to use it. The goal of the $605 million in federal funding over five years is $10-per-day child care across the board, but it's unclear when that will be achieved.
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"[ECEs] want to be in the field, but it is not a sustainable one to stay in for long periods of time anymore," said Stewart. "Until they [the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development] fund the program properly, they're not going to get people to stay."
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Although she enjoyed her work, she said she didn't feel like she was earning enough for it to be worth it, so she started her own dayhome in July.
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Government response
Last week, before the provincial legislature ended its fall session, the Nova Scotia Liberals tabled a bill that would provide free daycare for child-care workers.
NDP MLA Suzy Hansen said she agreed with the Liberals that ECEs deserve access to child care, but pointed out a lack of available spaces in the province.
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Druhan said the government is taking advantage of the funding from Ottawa to "build up the child-care system that doesn't have wait lists, that has spaces available across the province where all Nova Scotians need them."