Saskatchewan’s education minister says once the April 28 federal election is done is when the province plans to begin negotiations with Ottawa regarding an extension of the $10 per day childcare program.
Everett Hindley says other provinces that signed extensions to the federal program almost immediately in February are now coming back to the table to ask questions.
“You are seeing some of the other provinces now start to come back and say we signed this deal rather quickly back in February and now we want to make some changes,” Hindley said.
“When we were contacted back in early February and given the opportunity to start the negotiations, we said we need to bring forward some of the concerns that are being brought to our attention by families and childcare operators around the province.”
According to Hindley, the way the new agreement is structured for Saskatchewan once a child turns six, they age out of the program and are no longer eligible for the $10 per day fee.
“And in Manitoba that is not the case they’ve got a limit of [seven-years-old], so we are saying that’s a commonsense thing we think should be applied here in Saskatchewan, why wouldn’t we negotiate that into the new deal,” he said.
Hindley added that they haven’t had the time yet to negotiate some of the changes they would like to see implemented for the program in Saskatchewan.
“There was a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers back in late November and at that time there was no indication that negotiations would start on the next version of this deal.”
Hindley said the federal government sent them a letter in early February indicating it wanted to start negotiating with the province on extending the agreement until 2031.
“But we have like two weeks to get this done, when our officials reached out to the federal counter parts it was indicated that there wouldn’t be an opportunity to negotiate, just simply sign a deal as it was.”
Hindley said the province immediately recognized that some changes could be made to improve the program.
“We’re not asking for substantive major changes we just want to make sure that it’s long-term, that it’s sustainable, that it adds more childcare spaces here in Saskatchewan,” Hindley said.
He added the province is confident they will be able to get a deal done that favours Saskatchewan’s needs, similar comments made by Premier Scott Moe in March.
“We have a track record of being able to do that as recently as this past March we signed on to a federal agreement for the national school food program. So, we were able to conclude those negotiations and I think we will be able to do the same when it comes to childcare.”
The current agreement that was signed in 2021 will expire March 31, 2026.
