The education minister has written a letter to his federal counterpart asking for more funding to open up $10-a-day childcare spaces.

Paul Dinn says their budget for the creation of those daycare spaces has reached its limit for the fiscal year, and they have a little over three months to go before the new fiscal year begins.

While he couldn’t give a specific date, Dinn says the funding ran out “well before” the PCs took government.

He hopes to have a meeting with the federal minister in the coming weeks to talk about what additional funding is needed.

Dinn says the former government recently signed an extension to the Canada-wide early learning and childcare agreement that takes us to 2031. He says the number for that is around $98-million, plus a three per cent escalator clause.

Dinn says the department is working now to figure out what the specific ask will be.

He says they are making “many revisions” to the province’s childcare portal, which he has heard some parents call the “gateway to hell.” He says once those revisions are done they will have a better idea of what the demand is, and thus what the ask will be.