N.B. nurses say new child-care spaces for health-care workers good first step, need is provincewide

The New Brunswick Nurses Union president says child care has been a topic of discussion at the bargaining table with the New Brunswick government for over 20 years.

Paula Doucet says nurses have told her they either can’t find child care that works with their 12-hour shifts, or can’t find a child-care space at all when they’re ready to return from work after maternity leave.

Doucet says she’s glad to see Horizon Health stepping up with a new pilot program that will see 102 new child-care spaces created for health-care working families.

Two child-care operators located in Saint John and Fredericton will each offer 51 new, dedicated child-care spaces for permanent full-time and part-time Horizon Health employees and physicians.

According to a Horizon survey, 78.5 per cent of staff in those two cities said they would use a new child-care program near a Horizon facility, and 35.7 per cent said they needed child care until 8 p.m.

“It's imperative that we do have accessibility in the early morning hours of child care as well as the later in the evening hours, because, as you know, health care is 24/7,” Doucet said in an interview with CTV Atlantic.

The spaces will be for infants to five-year-olds, and include 12 “flex-time” spaces to allow parents care between 6:30 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The program is the first of its kind in New Brunswick.

Horizon Health says it’s a partnership between the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation and the Chalmers Foundation, and will be located in “newly renovated” centres within the two hospitals. They’ll be operated by Origins Natural Learning Childcare in Saint John and Go-Go Group Inc. in Fredericton.

Kara Angus, president of Go-Go, calls the work an honour.

“You'll often hear me say they keep us alive. I mean that genuinely. So if we can help offset any of the stress in their life and look after their little ones while they're doing really important work, it's a complete honor,” she said.

Charles A. Diab, CEO of the Chalmers Foundation, says the pilot was years in the making but the process really began last fall, with several day care operators expressing interest.

He says it’s a necessary step in Horizon’s ability to recruit and retain healthcare workers.

“The need for this support to recruit additional physicians and health care workers, it's a project that was really emotional for us to get involved in, because we wanted to fulfill it and make sure that there was space available for families that maybe didn't have them,” he said.

Designated child-care spaces are normally subsidized by the province. That portion will be covered by a Horizon Endowment Fund, costing the health authority $4 million total on the pilot – which will be split equally between the two communities.

That means parents will pay similar fees as if the child was attending a designated centre.

Applications for the spaces open Sept. 3.

Doucet hopes the pilot will allow Horizon and the day-care operators to see what health-care workers need, and how best to accommodate those needs.

“I absolutely see this pilot project as something that needs to roll out across all of the province, and not only with Horizon, but also within Vitalité in all the communities, because that is one of the biggest challenges, I think, for nurses returning after maternity leave is finding adequate child care,” she said.

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