‘Significant headway’: province to sign a deal on $10-a-day child care

For more than half a year, Saskatchewan has been one of the few provinces holding out on signing a deal to extend $10-a-day child care for another five years. But on Friday, the wait is set to end.

Premier Scott Moe announced during Question Period on Wednesday that a deal was imminent, and Education Minister Everett Hindley said afterward that he looks forward to signing the deal on Friday.

“This has been a priority for us as a government – I have said that and I think our government has said that consistently for months now,” Hindley said.

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He attributed the delay to a lack of responsiveness from the federal government, though he did say that in those months there was a federal election, a new federal minister taking over the file and a new federal budget.

Hindley also said there were changes Saskatchewan wanted in the deal and didn’t want to sign without negotiations.

“We were hearing from families and from child-care operators that, while they appreciated affordable, sustainable child care, that there were also some things there that weren’t working for them,” said Hindley.

He gave the example of wanting the age-out point not to be so rigid, giving kids time if they turned six in the middle of the year.

The minister wouldn’t give any details about what will be in the deal, saying those will be talked about once it’s signed.

He did seem to temper expectations by pointing out it was a negotiation.

“You don’t get everything that you’re asking for, but I think we’ve made some significant headway,” Hindley said.

He believes the deal will be positive for Saskatchewan and will provide some surety for parents and child-care providers.

Surety and certainty are what parents and providers have been missing in the months the province didn’t have a deal, according to the Sask. NDP’s Education critic Matt Love.

“I’m not about to throw a celebration for this government that’s taken more than a year to sign a deal for affordable childcare in Saskatchewan,” Love said.

He said the government hung people out to dry with the delay.

“What (providers are) telling us is that it’s very hard for them to sign a lease, to put forward a business plan, to grow the number of spaces that they can provide when we don’t have a deal,” explained Love.

When asked about the minister’s assertion that part of the delay was due to the federal government’s lack of response, Love said that didn’t seem to be the case for the other provinces, which signed a deal back in the spring.