N.S. daycare operator says provincial funding not there when needed

N.S. daycare operators unsure about agreement Daycare operators say they feel their back is against the wall with no choice but to sign on to new agreement. CTV's Jesse Thomas reports.

Some private daycare operators in Nova Scotia feel like they have no choice but to sign on to a new funding agreement with the province by Monday.

Operators like Brenda Beauchamp say they're confused about what it will mean for their businesses and when the funding will come through.

Beauchamp, who operates the It Takes A Village childcare centre in Halifax, says she's still waiting on her November funding to come through.

"We have 62 spaces and at 25 per cent of the fees for 62 spaces it's quite a bit of money," she says.

The province has reduced childcare fees by 25 per cent already and is taking steps to reduce fees by 50 per cent by the end of the year.

Last month, the province approved an increase in wages for early childhood educators. It's all part of the transformation of the early childhood education system.

Beauchamp said she supports the increase in wages, but says the funding to pay the new wages should have been there on Nov. 1. It hasn't arrived yet and it's leading to a cash flow problem.

"The increase in wages without funding them first, those are heavy increases," says Beauchamp.

Bonnie Minard is the executive director of the Portland Daycare Centre in Dartmouth, N.S., and says, until now, operators have been receiving its provincial funding at the beginning of the month, but that's no longer the case. It's now retroactive and that change has led to stress and uncertainty for some administrators.

"Just recently, starting in November, the government has switched it to retroactive payments, so we are getting our payment at the end of the month, which has put a lot of people in a very hard spot," says Minard.

Under the current model, childcare centres can't increase their fees and with inflation leading to greater expenses, operators are seeing revenues decline.

"Our costs have just been exorbitant, everything has doubled and tripled," says Minard. "Groceries, heat, and gas. Everything has gone up and it's making it harder to make ends meet."

Beauchamp says she's not sure how long she can continue to operate under the current parameters set out by the government.

"I don't know what their endgame is, you can speculate, but I would say it's to squeeze private operators out of business and it's a shame.”

The province says they are modernizing their reporting system so centres can get reimbursed faster for the hours worked by their staff. It also says it is working closely with operators to help them navigate the changes.

"I think the issue is, we are in a period of transformation," says Nova Scotia Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Becky Druhan. "We are continuing to provide funding, but as that is happening we are also shifting the way that the funding is provided."

Druhan says it's a major transformation of the way childcare funding is being provided and could lead to some confusion for operators, but support is there from the department.

The province says, over the next three years, it will be investing $120 million in funding for early childhood education.