REGINA – Like many Saskatchewan parents, one mom is fed up with the lack of available child care spots in the province – and she said that’s before factoring in the cost.
“Over $1,000 a month? For me, that’s almost my whole wage,” said Tara Hobbins, 28, a single mother living in Saskatoon with a pair of five-year-old daughters.
She said one of her biggest challenges is finding a daycare in the right neighbourhood because she has to leave work in the middle of the day to pick up one of her daughters from kindergarten and take her to the daycare.
“Between rent being so high and child care so high, it’s hard on parents.”
Opposition NDP women’s critic Danielle Chartier raised the issue in Wednesday’s question period, saying Saskatchewan lags far behind the national average for licensed day care spaces.
Chartier said there are enough day care spaces for just eight per cent of children, compared to more than 20 per cent across Canada.
Education Minister Don Morgan told reporters the government is working to improve that number.
“We’ve got a large number of unlicensed (daycares). Unlicensed doesn’t mean unregulated or improper, it means they’re not required to obtain a license. We have a review under way to determine the optimum size for licensing and (find) better ways to do it.”
Morgan also pointed to the beginning of construction on a child care centre at the University of Saskatchewan.
There were no new child care spaces in the 2015 provincial budget, but Morgan said another 800 spaces will be available when several new joint-use schools open in 2017.
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