The provincial government is touting the creation of some 820 new daycare spaces this year, but one childcare advocate doesn’t believe those numbers are making as big of a dent in demand as one would think.

Gillian Pearson says those new spaces also include after-school care.

Therefore, Pearson says that number is concerning. She cites Stats Canada data indicating that there are about 25,000 children who require care before they get to Kindergarten.

She says to get to 70 percent coverage of that particular age group about 16,000 spaces are needed, not including after-school spots.

She says the province is not necessarily on track to meet the demand if only 800 spaces are being added per year. Pearson believes a deeper dive into the numbers is needed to determine what age groups the spaces are for.