At almost two years old, Keadan LaBreche is learning fast. But in just a few weeks his mom, Christy LaBreche, will have to go back to work full-time. The only problem is she can’t find a daycare that has room for him. She, along with hundreds of other parents in the city, have been waitlisted.
It’s not leaving Christy and her husband with many options, either Keadan bounces from friends and family members places, or one them quits their job.
It’s a reality city daycares know all too well.
“To have centres having 100 students or children on the waiting list is absolutely ridiculous,” said Shondell Neithercut, Executive Director for KidsFirst Daycare. She’s currently running a waitlist of 75.
The government says they’ve increased the amount of childcare spaces in the province by 36 percent in the last four years, but Neithercut says that’s still not enough to keep up with the booming population.
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“We love Regina, that’s great. But now they’re coming with all their families and kids, and we have no place to put these kids,” she said. “It’s becoming very, very unnerving.”
The Premier has made a commitment to develop 2000 more childcare spaces over the next four years, but Neither cut says the bigger piece of the puzzle will be staffing those centres with qualified workers.
A government official said Friday, they have no plans to push the Early Childhood Education certificates in community colleges. This term the program head at SIAST says they only have 17 students graduating from the program.
Officials say the waiting list numbers are being inflated because the same families are on all the same lists.
“I’m not denying that we have significant waiting lists,” said Cindy Jeanes, Director of Early Years Branch. “But, just to clarify, that a number of families are on a number of the same lists, so I’m not sure that that’s an accurate reflection of what the need is.”
But for parents like LaBreche who is expected to return to a full-time position in March, those numbers seem very daunting.
“When you literally first get pregnant, the first thing you should do is get on a waitlist for a daycare,” she said. “Otherwise, you’re not going to have a daycare when its time to go back to work.”
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