Family questions future in Saskatchewan if it loses $10-a-day child care

Article content The decision to have a second child was made easier for Shayla Dietrich, knowing $10-a-day child care would make life more affordable. It meant she and her husband, Matthew, went from paying about $800 a month for their first child, Henry, to be in daycare, to $217 a month. It meant the family no longer had to dip into savings for child care.

It meant Matthew could go back to the University of Regina to become a teacher and it meant the decision to bring Ruth into the world was simpler. “It’s been a game-changer,” said Dietrich from her home Wednesday while her daughter napped. “It’s part of the reason we decided, ‘OK, we’re gonna have a second kid,’ because we know we’re not having to come up with now $1,600 a month for daycare.



” Saskatchewan is one of two provinces yet to sign a deal extending the federally subsidized $10-a-day child-care program into March 2031. Without the extension, the program would end in March 2026. Before signing, the province said it wants the ability to view agreements between other provinces and the Canadian government.

“The federal government provided a two-week ultimatum to sign an extension with no room for any changes or additions to the previously signed agreement,” said the province in a statement issued Wednesday, also noting there have been issues raised by operators that the government would like to address. “It is our view that an extension should allow for a fulsome negotiation to build on what is working in Saskatchewan as well as the opportunity to learn from other provinces to ensure that the child care sector continues to benefit families and operators across Saskatchewan.” In the meantime, Little Memories Child Care Co-operative in Regina faces possible closure as early as May 2025 in light of a deficit last year.

“If we didn’t have a line of credit, our doors would have been closed probably last November,” said Deana Williams, the centre’s executive director. Since the $10-a-day program came into force in 2023, her daycare has experienced a five-per-cent increase (or $11) in funding per child. “All our families, they deserve a system where they can have affordable and accessible child care,” said Williams in a recent interview.

“I have no idea why we aren’t signed on.” But Williams wants to see amendments to how daycares are compensated. Over its 30-year history, Little Memories has catered to working families, single parents and parents looking to get back into the workforce.

As such, their fees were lower. When the $10-a-day program was rolled out, “they capped us with little room for a raise,” said Williams, who added that funding rates to daycares have been frozen in Saskatchewan since the program rolled out. Child Care Now Saskatchewan (CCNS) is also calling for an improved funding model.

In a news release issued Thursday, the organization asked the province to sign onto the federal deal and for it to include a staff wage grid and new targets for the number of day-care spaces in the province. “It’s frankly insulting to hear (Premier Scott) Moe say that he wants to hear from operators when we have heard from many who are either routinely ignored or been told they’re on their own if they’re struggling,” Sue Delanoy, the local chapter chair of Child Care Now, said in the release. For Dietrich and other parents, the uncertainty of the program’s future is causing distress, especially amid uncertain economic times.

Knowing the program will be operational until 2031 would be reassuring and mean Dietrich and others could make longer-term plans to stay in Saskatchewan. Without $10-a-day child care guaranteed, “our quality of life would diminish,” she said. “If we can’t have that quality of life, maybe Saskatchewan isn’t really the place for us.

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