Sask. government, Ottawa extend $10/day daycare for another five years

Some Saskatchewan parents will continue to receive $10 a day daycare for another five years thanks to an extension of the Canada-Saskatchewan Bilateral Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, starting in 2026-2027.

Buckley Belanger, secretary of state for rural development, said this agreement will provide more flexibility, stability and inclusivity to the program while also keeping it affordable.

He said this gives parents and caregivers a better chance to work, go back to school or pursue whatever careers they aspire to.

“All these options become available to them, but the more important aspect is, as they place their children in these daycare centers, they are nurtured; they are educated; they are taught good manners; they’re taught all the great values, because we have a solid, dedicated team of childcare workers that are ensuring that these kids are safe, that they’re nurtured, and, above all else, that there’s a lot of compassion afforded to them,” he told media on Friday.

“It’s really a solid win-win when we talk about the safety nets that Canada enjoys today.

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Belanger said the money will help child-care providers deal with inflation.

According to the Ministry of Education, base funding for early learning and child-care programs will increase by three per cent per year for four years, starting in 2027-2028.

Education Minister Everett Hindley said that Saskatchewan is at 91 per cent of its target of creating 28,000 additional child care spaces, which was set in 2021. At the time, Saskatchewan was the third province to reduce child care fees to $10 a day.

“The next step for us is to be able to negotiate and work on the actual action plan and have that work done. That will get into the finer details of what that looks like and how that impacts individual operators,” Hindley said.

The extended agreements includes expanded age eligibility, so children in care who turn six while attending Kindergarten can continue to receive $10 a day daycare until they complete the school year.

Hindley said it was important for the new deal to include sensible upgrades like this one.

Sask. NDP’s childcare and early learning critic Joan Pratchler on Friday questioned why the move had taken so long.

“We’re the second last province in Canada to get an extension. Providers have put off necessary investments. Others looking to start up childcare centres have been refused financing. Childcare workers have left to take jobs in retail or at the local gas station. Parents continue to wait … ,” she said.

“I’m glad that the government has finally signed an extension, but it should not have taken this long.”

The education minister also said the province took steps to address some of the financial problems child care centres have experienced while trying to keep up with inflationary costs under the program.

“As much as there were some very, very positive things in the initial agreement, and what positives that brought to our province and to families right across Saskatchewan, we wanted to take a look and see in terms of the feedback we were hearing from the sector, where were there changes that needed to be made,” Hindley said.

“And so from that perspective, that’s where we as a government felt, when we were going to renegotiate this agreement — we wanted to try to bring some of those things to the table. And I think we’ve seen some of that here in the renegotiated agreement.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Daniel Reech

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