Daycares struggling with uncertain answers from province

For once, the people who run daycares have more questions than the youngest kids in their care, but they don’t seem to be getting answers from the government.

For Cara Steiner at Prairie Lily Early Learning Centre in Regina, communication with the government has been difficult because politicians are making public announcements before sending clear instructions to people working at the Ministry of Education who then don’t have answers when daycare operators call.

“Then we’re all left scrambling to make things work in the aftermath of those statements and conferences,” Steiner said.

The Prairie Lily Early Learning Centre location at Sacred Heart School has been designated as a childcare centre for essential service workers, but Steiner personally feels all the daycares without that designation should shut down and families should keep their kids home if they are able to.

“Yes, those non-essential sites need to be closed, but they also need to be closed with a plan. They cannot just be closed. There has to be something in conjunction with that closure to say, ‘This is how we’re going to care for staff. This is funding that you’re going to be getting,’ ” Steiner said.

“What needs to happen is that there needs to be a plan and then an announcement so that when people are calling in talking to their consultants, talking to their representatives at the Ministry of Education, they have answers for us instead of us just calling them and they can’t even tell us any further information. I think that has been very hard,” Steiner said.

Steiner’s voice broke as she explained she has conflicting emotions about advocating to close all non-essential daycares.

“Our whole job is to care for children and we’re being told that we can’t do that in the way that we need to,” Steiner said, wiping away a tear. “It has just been a really tough week of trying to figure out how to help our families, how to help our staff and how to keep people employed, how to keep paying people. Just doing all of that has been a big balancing act.”

Steiner pointed out most daycare workers cannot afford to live on Employment Insurance benefits because their paycheques are so small to begin with, which is why she feels the government should offer extra financial support.

“For staff who are making $12, $13, $14 an hour, for them to be laid off at this time and put on EI and making 55 per cent of what their normal wage is is just not acceptable and it’s not enough for them to survive,” Steiner said.

She suggested this time might finally prove the worth of childcare as an essential service and it might be time to shift funding accordingly to pay childcare workers a better wage to begin with.

After a week of uncertainty with families wondering if they should pull their kids out and if they would have to keep paying or lose their spot, Steiner said their daycare has decided to put all payments on hold and welcome the same families back when restrictions are lifted.

Currently she said the people caring for the kids of essential service workers have volunteered to stay because they feel safe and able to do so based on their own health and family situations. Steiner said they are doing their best to care for all the needs of the kids and limiting them to eight kids per room as required by the government, but social distancing is impossible.

“There are kids who are scared, there are kids who are stressed and they need hugs and they need comfort,” Steiner said. “That is just an essential part of early learning and childcare because you can’t have learning without the care.”

The one bright side for Steiner and her co-workers is the ability of kids to find the fun in anything. They may be with new people and limited to a group of eight, but without any students around, they have been offered the freedom to explore more of the school and play in the gym. Their favourite storybook is a very timely and funny look at what germs are.