A new report is shining a light on some startling statistics about access to child care in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The report from Childcare Resource and Research Unit focuses on numbers from 2021, and thus doesn’t fully encapsulate the current child care crunch or more recent government initiatives to alleviate it.
The report shows only 14 per cent of children up to 12 years old have a part or full time regulated child care space available to them.
The province is tied with Nova Scotia for the third lowest number of spaces available in the country. The lowest is Saskatchewan at 10 per cent, while Quebec is the highest at 54 per cent.
Education Minister John Haggie notes that while it is a new report, it is referencing “stale data in a very dynamic situation.”
For example, he says they set a target of 700 new child care spaces in the province for this calendar year, and as of May 1 they already have 480 of those in place. He says they are making significant leaps and bounds in terms of spaces.
(NDP Leader Jim Dinn, PC Leader David Brazil. File photo.)
PC leader David Brazil and NDP leader Jim Dinn both believe government has failed parents who need child care.
Brazil says government knew the issues were coming but failed to consult with the industry on solutions. Dinn says government has broken their promise to parents who need affordable child care.
