Saskatchewan’s strengthening economy is prompting the provincial government to spend money on child care so parents can work.
Last month social services minister Donna Harpauer and education minister Ken Krawetz announced the government would spend $1.7 million this year to create 500 new licensed child-care spaces in 17 communities.
“Our growing economy has created an unprecedented demand for child care as more parents want to find their place in the workforce or pursue post-secondary education,” Krawetz said.
Rural communities were big winners, gaining 358 of the 500 spaces, including Birch Hills with 41 spaces, Foam Lake with 28, Ituna 25 and Clavet 30.
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As of this past March, Saskatchewan had 9,150 licensed child-care spaces, but only 2,000 of them were in rural areas.
The province didn’t fare well in a report written last year by University of Toronto child-care researcher Martha Friendly. While the report did not cover this year, Friendly noted that in 2007, Saskatchewan had the lowest ratio of spaces to children among all provinces.
“The thing I want to stress is that unless government actively supports expansion and improving quality, it won’t happen,” she said in an interview.
Manitoba, with a similar population, spent $86.3 million on regulated child care in 2005-06. A government official said Saskatchewan spent $50.7 million in 2007-08.
However, the problem is not just Saskatchewan’s. While more than three million Canadian children younger than 12 have mothers who work, there are only enough government-regulated spaces to hold half a million of them. Most children of working parents are looked after by relatives or in non-licensed homes where standards may be lower.
The former federal Liberal government was going to spend $5 billion to set up a national child-care system.
However, the Stephen Harper government cancelled that and instituted a plan that pays parents $100 a month for child-care costs until the child turns seven.
The Saskatchewan government is also contributing an additional $1.1 million in the annual budget to subsidize child-care spaces to make them more affordable for parents.
The program subsidized 3,600 spaces this past April at an average monthly subsidy of $370 each.
Without a subsidy, parents pay an average $500 a month in Saskatchewan for a toddler in full-time regulated child care. Infant care costs more, while school-aged children’s spaces are cheaper.
