NDP leader Jim Dinn has committed to introducing a pension plan, and 10 paid sick days per year for early childhood educators, if his party forms government.

Dinn made the announcement with Mount Scio candidate Laurabel Mba at Daybreak Parent Child Centre on Friday.

Dinn says his plan is to “overhaul” the current $10 a day system in the province.

He says that initiative was supposed to help families with the cost of childcare, but there are many families that can’t get into the system.

Dinn believes it is a lack of staffing that is leading to spaces not opening up, and he thinks adding a pension and more paid sick days will help attract more ECEs to the field.

On the pension aspect specifically, he says his government would contribute 10 per cent of gross salary for childcare workers, at a cost of $11.2-million per year.

He says more details about how that would work will be released in their platform. “If you want to invest in our children, you have to invest in the people looking after them.”