The announcement is part of a shared goal of the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan to add 28,000 new child spaces by the end of March 2026 – collectively bringing the average cost of regulated child care down to $10 a day.
“Every child deserves the best start in life,” said Karina Gould, Canada’s minister of families, children, and social development. “These additional child care spaces will help grow our Canada-wide early learning and child care system, allowing more children and families from Saskatchewan to access high-quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child care.”
The Canada-Saskatchewan Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement was signed in August 2021. It provides for a federal investment in Saskatchewan child care of close to $1.1 billion over five years.
Another way the province is attempting to reach the goal of 28,000 new regulated child care spaces is by encouraging the licensing of existing unregulated child care homes.
The province has already announced an average fee reduction of 50 per cent per child thanks to the agreement. The federal government has said that more than half of the country’s provinces and territories have already either significantly lowered child care costs or have achieved the $10-a-day goal.
The announcement today is in addition to the 601 new spaces promised in December 2021.
The 1,202 new spaces will benefit the following communities:
- Asquith
- Bethune
- Bredenbury
- Grayson
- Gull Lake
- Hague
- Humboldt
- Kindersley
- Lloydminster
- Martensville
- Milestone
- Moose Jaw
- Montmartre
- Pilot Butte
- Outlook
- Prince Albert
- Regina
- Saskatoon
- Swift Current
- Warman
- Zenon Park
Moose Jaw’s Northwest Child Development Centre will be adding 20 new spaces through expansion to an additional site. The Centre could not be reached for comment at the time of this story.
Swift Current’s Natural Wonders Early Learning Centre will be adding 77 new child care spaces at an additional site.
Executive director Sheila Paradis said in a media statement “Natural Wonders Early Learning Centre looks forward to the opening of 77 new licensed spaces for ages 0-5 in the early fall of 2022. It is encouraging to see the allocation of funding from the bilateral agreement open spaces in rural Saskatchewan which will shorten wait times, allowing all families in our community access to high-quality, inclusive, regulated early learning. Providing holistic environments for children which are based on best practice with career-minded, well-educated, and fairly compensated educators is a priority in our early learning and child care programs.”
The timeline for the remaining facilities is unknown. Many of them will use the money for expansions to their buildings or the acquisition of new sites, which creates uncertainty about when those spaces will be ready.
A full list of benefiting facilities, including the number of spaces planned for each, is available from Saskatchewan.ca’s news and media page.
