Nova Scotia’s recent investments in child care have sparked mixed reactions, with concerns raised about the potential drawbacks of extending funding to private daycares. Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Brendan Maguire has hinted at the necessity of involving the private daycare sector and leveraging additional federal funds to achieve the province’s goal of $10-a-day child care on average by March 2026.
While Maguire envisions a small percentage of private daycares being part of the solution to meet the child care space requirements, the Nova Scotia Non-Profit Directors Association strongly opposes the idea of funneling public funds into private operations. According to Janessa Williams, co-chair of the association and executive director of Needham Early Learning Centre in Halifax, child care should be treated as a public service rather than a business, as outlined in the initial agreement requiring federal funding to support the not-for-profit child care sector.
Although private daycare providers play a vital role in Nova Scotia’s child care system, advocates like Williams emphasize the importance of focusing on a publicly funded system akin to the public school setup. The provincial government, committed to achieving affordable child care, is exploring avenues with federal counterparts to realize the $10-a-day target. However, concerns persist among advocacy groups like Child Care Now Nova Scotia, who view funding private daycare operators as a misstep.
As the province aims to create 9,500 new daycare spaces by 2026 under the current agreement, efforts are underway to support not-for-profit providers through grant programs for facility expansion. Despite the appetite within the non-profit sector to increase child care spaces, the denial of recent expansion funding requests underscores the sector’s eagerness to fulfill the demand without the involvement of for-profit operators.
