Saskatchewan needs affordable, accessible childcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the extent to which our economy depends on child care. Schools, camps and most child care facilities have had to close. Parents have had to take on a heavy load of unpaid care work.

This all while balancing paid work at home or in essential services. Some parents are also dealing with an unexpected job loss or reduced work time. There’s no respite in sight.

Families across the province were already facing a child care crisis. Saskatchewan is last in Canada when it comes to accessing regulated child care spaces. Only 18% of children under 5 years old have access to licensed child care but over 70% of mothers with children under 5 years old are working.

The federal government’s announcement earlier this year of $30 billion towards a national childcare program is a generational opportunity to make lives better for working women and their families. Several provinces, including British Columbia and Nova Scotia, have already reached agreements with the federal government for childcare programs to use their share of federal funding.

However, while Premier Scott Moe and the Sask. Party Government have submitted a plan for $10-a-day child care to the federal government, they won’t tell anyone what is in that plan and they didn’t talk to any of the child care advocates and policy experts in the community when they drafted it. Families in Saskatchewan deserve to know what the government’s plan is for safe, quality and affordable child care in the province.

We need to make sure that Scott Moe hears that any plan for child care must be accessible and affordable. It also needs to make sure child care workers can make a fair wage. Childcare Now Saskatchewan, an advocacy group that has been calling for a national childcare program for over 30 years is spear-heading a campaign calling for the Sask. Party to share their plan, and to consult and listen to parents, communities, child care advocates and policy experts. Sign and send a letter to Scott Moe on their website at http://saskatchewan.childcaren... and tell the Sask. Party that we need a plan that works for families in Saskatchewan.

Families shouldn’t have to choose between work and their children’s well being. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed society’s gendered expectations. Women often perform the majority of caregiving responsibilities. Women should not have to exit or defer re-entering the workforce because they need to care for their kids. It’s time to build a system of high-quality, affordable and inclusive child care here in Saskatchewan and across the country. There can be no economic recovery without it.