Daycare owners say Nova Scotia's plan unaffordable

Nova Scotia's plan to make child care more affordable for families is drawing the ire of daycare operators and owners in the province, with some saying they aren't being given enough information about how it will be implemented.

Donna Buckland,spokeswoman of the Early Childhood Education Action Group, said daycares across the province are being told to sign on to the province's action plan or risk losing all funding from the province.

"Stop tying our hands because they're going to put us all under," said Buckland. "With our overall expenses growing three to four per cent each year and our fee increases capped at one per cent, how long will it take before we must close our doors?"

Wage increases

Nova Scotia's plan announced in June would raise the provincial average wage for trained early childhood educators in Nova Scotia from $12.84 an hour to between $15 and $19 an hour depending on the skill level. Early childhoodeducatorsin Nova Scotia arepaid the lowest in Canada.

The plan contains 27 actions that will be implemented over the next five years. It'salready being implemented in several phases.

"We do not believe it is in the best interest of Nova Scotia families to pay base salaries solely on education background with no consideration whatsoever of experience," said DonnaBuckland.

Not enough money

Bucklandis also the executive director of the Giant Steps Children's Centre, a daycare with three locations. She said herdaycareand others can't afford the increases the province wants.

"We have always struggled with being called a for-profit business," DonnaBucklandsaid."Giant Stepsemploys50 staff members. We have threemortgagesand a van payment. We pay our bills. There is enough left over for us to take a small salary. The hourly amount would not meet the new action plan's mandate for minimum wage floor."

"It is important for you to know child care centres have many other expenses such as mortgage, property tax, groceries, advertising, supplies, equipment, snow removal, playground upkeep, landscaping, garbage collection,"Bucklandsaid.

Daycare expenses

Bucklandsaid at first the government's plan sounded like great news for staff and families, but she said the excitement was short lived.

"At this point Giant Steps had not had an increase for two-and-a-half-yearsand we were planning one in September. Most of that increase was earmarked to go toward wages for dedicated, hardworking staff."

Buckland saidthe government needs to take a step back from the plan to let daycare owners manage their businesses.

"This is unacceptable to us. We supply essential services to our families and communities and we feel we do this well. We want to be able to run our child-care centres as we always have," said Buckand. "Policy makers do not know what is best for a business."