The Nova Scotia government says it's giving child-care centres more funding to address rising operational costs, increase infant spaces and to raise staff wages in a new annual agreement.
The province says the daily funding amount child-care operators receive for infant programs will more than double to support the addition of infant spaces across the province. The new amount is $10 per day per infant space for centre and home-based operators.
The one-time grant will also help address rising operational costs, as well as an added wage premium of $1.50 per hour for early childhood educators (ECEs) with advanced practitioner program certificates.
"It's important that young children have the best start, and Nova Scotia's child-care operators are doing their best to provide quality care while also facing rising operating costs," said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Becky Druhan in a news release Friday.
"This agreement increases funding for the year and follows the recent three per cent wage boost for early childhood educators as part of our promise made last fall for regular public sector wage increases."
Druhan says the grant funding is based on the size of the child-care centres and their parent fees.
"So it's a very objective approach to funding and of course our child-care centres vary greatly in terms how many children they provide care to," she said.
The province says the grant has a median rate of about $17,000 for the centres.
Bonnie Minard is the executive director of Portland Daycare Centre in Dartmouth, N.S.
She says she was surprised to see the province announce more funding, even though it's something private child-care operators have been lobbying for since the province froze the rates they could charge parents in 2018.
"Absolutely we want parents to be paying less but there is a true cost of care and we have groceries, we have staffing, we have heat and we have power and we know all those things have gone through the roof," said Minard.
