Staffing salaries and spaces are big issues in child care

    Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:55

    By Tonya Organ

    Christine Young is the CEO of the YMCA. She says they are licensed for more children but staffing is an issue.

    In the spring of 2021, the Federal Government announced the creation of a National Childcare system with $30 billion over five years to be spent to cut childcare costs to ten dollars a day.  On BayFM’s the Plain Truth with Paula Sheppard, her guests talked about the process. Christine Young is the CEO of the YMCA. She says this is great news but it is sometimes hard to create childcare spaces. Young says they are licensed for more children but staffing is an issue. Caroline Wheeler is the YMCA’s Regional Manager of Pre-K development. She says they have offered regulated after school programs for years in Corner Brook. Wheeler says the Pre-kindergarten program deals with school readiness. In  2019, 6 percent of Canadian children 0-5 years old took part in a Pre-K childcare. In 2023, this province only has enough registered child care spaces for about 14 percent of children.

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