Trudeau calls NS child care funding key to 'a feminist recovery' from COVID
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The massive funding announcement is welcome news to many—given the rising costs of care and impact of COVID-19 on daycares, which caused some centres to shutter over the past year. But the provincial NDP’s education and early childhood development critic Claudia Chender said today’s announcement comes far too late to help those who most need support.
‘We’re in a pretty huge bind as far as childcare goes in Nova Scotia,’ Chender said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. ‘We don’t have enough ECEs, we have a massive wage disparity between the public sector and the not-for-profits.’
The province says it will address workforce issues among ECEs by providing one-time $500 grants for ECEs who work in NS-funded daycares, and by 2022 it will develop a compensation framework for early childhood educators in order to improve pay and benefits.
‘What we heard today attempts to address those issues, but with way too long of a timeline—and on the eve of an election,’ Chender said.
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