Halifax opens more child care centres as day care waitlist grows

A struggle for placements unfold in child care centres across the Halifax-area with waitlists that stretch endlessly.

Portland Daycare Centre’s executive director, Bonnie Minard, said she already has parents on a waitlist for 2024. However, with the current number of people on the daycare’s waitlist now she does not know whether there will be availability then.

“Right now close to 200 infants [are] on our waitlist, we have 100-plus toddlers on our waitlist and unfortunately we have very little movement so we won’t be able to accommodate.”

Despite the promises of increasing the number of child care centres made by Tim Houston’s government in 2021, according to numbers obtained by the province’s NDP, more child care spaces have closed than opened.

“It said we have 680 spaces that are open, 653 spaces that are closed, which leaves us with 28 spaces in total for the whole province available for new child care spaces,” said Nova Scotia NDP MLA, Suzy Hansen.

During cabinet meeting on Thursday, the province said the closures of these centres is out of their control.

“Folks are making decisions – individual decisions at times to retire. We also know that we have historic property values at this time where we’ve seen inflation,” said Becky Druhan, minister of Education & Early Childhood Development.

Minard believes the province has to look at the growing need for child care spaces and fund them accordingly. She said that until that happens, accessibility will always be a problem for parents, especially for those in the Halifax-area.

“We have parents in tears like desperate for spaces.”

Minard said this leaves many parents making the difficult decision to leave their jobs.

In an announcement today, the Federal government discussed 500 new and planned child care spaces in the Halifax-area, including:

•  East Preston Childcare Centre, 8 new infant spaces, 30 spots for school-aged children and will add 60 new toddler spaces in Dartmouth.
•  Construction of the new YMCA Fall River Early Learning Child Care Centre is underway. It will have 85 spaces; 16 for infants, 45 for toddlers and 24 for preschoolers. They are expected to open this summer.
•  Maritime Muslim Academy Preschool, Halifax peninsula will have 42 new spaces; 10 infant, 32 preschool. They will open in spring.
•  Edward Jost Children’s Centre, Spryfield will have 76 new spaces; 20 infant, 24 toddler, 32 preschool, in addition to the spaces recently opened. It will open during the spring.
•  First Lake Early Learning Centre, Lower Sackville, will have eight new infant spaces, and will open spring/summer
•  Bayers Westwood Day Care Centre, Halifax, will have six new infant spaces and open in the summer.
•  Dartmouth Day Care Centre will have 34 new spaces; 14 infant, 20 toddler. They open in the fall
•  Maritime Muslim Academy, Clayton Park, will have 100 new spaces; 20 infant, 32 toddler, 48 preschool. They will open in the fall.

“It doesn’t solve the problem for every family tomorrow morning, but the objective as we move forward is that it will and we’re increasing the numbers quickly across the country,” said Sackville MP, Darrell Samson.

Hansen said while this is a good step forward, more needs to be done by the province to really create a dent to the waitlist.

“They need to support and champion the childcare sector. The childcare system is the backbone of our province. We need this in order to get back to work, to continue to work, or go to school. It is a priority,” he said.

During Thursday’s meeting, Druhan said the province is better off today than it was a decade ago in this sector, and while Minard said she agrees that in certain aspects, like wage have improved since then, day care centres have never seen this many people unable to access care.

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