Province negotiating national child-care program with Ottawa

As the federal government and Alberta reach a deal for a child-care agreement, the Progressive Conservative government in New Brunswick says it wants to better understand the potential impact of federal funding on smaller, for-profit businesses.

On Monday, Alberta and the federal government announced details of their deal to support an average of $10-a-day universal federal child-care program.

This would create 42,500 new regulated early learning and child care spaces in Alberta by the end of March 2026.

In April as part of this year's budget, Ottawa announced $30 billion over five years and $8.3 billion ongoing intended to create a robust and affordable child-care system.

Many parents in New Brunswick have struggled to find child care under the current system.

"In terms of accessibility, of being able to find something that's close to home, it can make it challenging," said Fredericton's Kristen Barnes.

Barnes has an 11-month daughter and said in an interview that she just found a daycare spot for her child, despite calling multiple centres fairly early on in her pregnancy.

Some businesses told Barnes waiting lists were so long, she might not get a spot until September of 2022.

Eventually, Barnes was able to find a daycare, but they only take children at 15 months or older. 

She has to go back to work at the end of the year, so Barnes said family will be able to watch her child until she is old enough to start daycare. 

But she knows every family is different and others may face multiple hurdles to find child care. 

"Child care is quite expensive for all families who are looking for it and even looking at the cost for our family, like one child can be compared to a monthly rent payment or a mortgage payment." 

New Brunswick specific challenges 

Some research has shown that if fees dropped to $10 a day, it would save parents in New Brunswick about $7,500 a year per infant.

Parents of pre-schoolers, who now pay an average of $8,300 per child, would save about $5,700 per child per year by 2026.

Krysta Cowling, the chair of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, said $10 a day in child-care costs can make an amazing difference for families, but that a big concern of the coalition is still the quality of child care in the province.

"Currently two-thirds of child care in New Brunswick is privately owned and operated, with only a third of our child-care centres being non-profit centres. We're also the only province in Canada without a public child care," said Cowling.

"So what this means is that when our child care is privately owned then the goal of that is to make profit off of child care."

Cowling is concerned that can mean increasing prices for families in order to continue to make money. 

The coalition has heard from families who struggle to find bilingual child-care centres.

"What we really want to see is investment into wages as well for early childhood educators. This sector has not reached pay equity, so early childhood education would be female-dominated employment."

In a statement to CBC News, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development said negotiations with the federal government have resumed.

"We are seeking a better understanding of how the federal funding may impact child care in the province and our efforts to support New Brunswick's families, educators and operators," said spokesperson Flavio Nienow. 

In September, Premier Blaine Higgs expressed concern that a public daycare system would eliminate private daycare operations.

The department's statement continues, "We remain committed to carefully negotiating a deal that would maximize access to affordable, quality child care and respond to the unique challenges and realities of New Brunswick's early learning sector – which consists primarily of small, for-profit businesses that are owned and operated by female entrepreneurs."

The province said further details will be released once an agreement is reached.