Educator pay rises, but daycare director says it’s not enough

While the provincial government raised the subsidy it provides for early childhood educators (ECEs) in Saskatchewan as of Sunday, at least one daycare operator said government didn’t go far enough.

The provincial government, as part of the $10 a day childcare deal with the federal government, subsidizes ECE wages, and on Sunday it increased that by a few dollars for workers with each level of ECE training (I, II and III). However, the wage enhancement didn’t include ECEs who don’t have their training levels. Kessel said she can only afford to pay them minimum wage, which makes it hard to keep them when a shop down the street can pay higher and offer benefits. And she explained that getting their training levels is even more difficult when making only minimum wage.

“Taking one class a semester, it’ll take you an entire year making minimum wage to be able to earn that wage enhancement,” said Kessel.

Kessel wants the provincial government to subsidize ECEs without their levels and to include a wage enhancement for ECEs who are actively taking the training.

In addition, Kessel said the government keeps telling daycare centres everything last minute.

“They let us know Friday at 3 p.m. that they would be doing increases as of Monday, so now everybody’s kind of stuck,” said Kessel.

This isn’t the first time Kessel has spoken up. She travelled twice in the last legislative sitting to talk to legislators in Regina. The first time she was frustrated over the $10 a day daycare implementation not taking into account part-time and drop-in service and the imminent cancellation of those services if things didn’t change.

And a few months later she returned to the legislature to try to talk to the Education Minister about a lack of communication and help from the ministry.

The second time, Kessel said the minister, then Dustin Duncan, said he would meet with her then left the building. She said she got a letter later on but hasn’t heard anything since.

Kessel said the $10 a day daycare plan’s rollout has been a mess.

“They made these huge federal government agreements without contacting any early childhood educators or any centre, they depended just on SECA (Saskatchewan Early Childhood Association), which is a fantastic early childhood education group but it does not represent everybody,” said Kessel.

In an emailed response to some of Kessel’s concerns, the Ministry of Education said supporting ECE professionals is a priority under the agreement with the federal government, and the wage enhancement grant is designed to help recruit and retain ECEs.

The ministry said, before the Oct. 1 increase, 90 per cent of ECEs working in the sector, or about 2,500 people, were getting the wage enhancement grant.

“The ministry is committed to working with the child care sector to ensure timely delivery of information,” read the statement.

Editor’s Note: This story has been further updated to better reflect the government’s changes to ECE wage thresholds.