Day homes excluded from newly announced child-care funding

Day home operators in the N.W.T. say they're being left out of federal and territorial funding for early child-care educators.

Last week, the N.W.T. government announced it is partnering with the federal government to invest $4.6 million into wages for "educators working in licensed centre-based early learning and child-care programs" in the territory.

The territory's Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) defines centre-based programs as "provided in a facility other than a private residence."

That means day home operators in the territory are not eligible for the money. 

The department has 114 programs listed in its directory of licensed early learning and child-care programs. Just over a third of them — 39 in total — are day homes.

After seeing last week's funding announcement, Yellowknife day home operator Nicole Loubert said "it's like we don't exist."  

The funding is a two-year retention incentive that provides funds to top up wages for full-time staff members or staff working the equivalent of full-time hours.

The program, which is part of the N.W.T.-federal child-care agreement that was originally announced in December 2021, provides $12,750 per eligible employee in the first year and $16,250 in year two. 

The funding is retroactive to April 1, 2022, meaning year two will begin this coming April. 

In response to questions about day home operators being excluded, ECE spokesperson Briony Grabke said that's a result of engagement conducted for the 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy. 

In an email, Grabke wrote that participants, "including licensed family day home operators," identified wages for employees "as a top priority."

She said day home operators indicated that, "while they are able to make a decent living because of the profits they make and tax exemptions related to owning a business, they recognized the same is not true for educators employed in licensed centres."

The retention incentive program is designed to lead into a wage grid that ECE said will be implemented in 2024-25.  

Proposed amendments to take effect in March

That wage grid is one of five amendments ECE is proposing to the territory's child-care act.

Those proposed amendments include: 

• Establishing an N.W.T. certification process and wage grid;

• Increasing inclusion and reporting measures;

• Establishing cost control measures;

• Protecting the rights of families;

• Updating language.

In a document outlining the amendments, the department said the changes will come into effect in March 2023.

Even though the department collected feedback over the summer and released a 'what we hear report' last month, operators say they still aren't clear about what the changes mean for their businesses.  

Yvette Cooper is the regional day home representative with the NWT Early Childcare Association, an organization focused on advocacy for early learning and child care. 

Cooper also runs her own day home in Yellowknife. 

She said the department has told operators that details on the amendments to the Child Day Care Act will be communicated in March. 

Since operators sign their yearly contribution agreement in April, Cooper said the tight timeline "feels like a tactic to restrict our ability to stand up for ourselves."

Cooper drew parallels to last spring, when child-care providers spoke up about issues with the federal Child Care Reduction Fee (CCRF) — a program aimed at reducing the average cost of child care to $10 a day. 

The program bars operators from raising rates by more than 2.3 per cent, an amount operators have said doesn't allow them to keep up with inflation. 

ECE announced at the time that if they don't sign on to the federal CCRF, they lose their territorial funding too. Operators said the subsidy was rolled out too quickly and that those stipulations weren't made clear until they were facing the subsidy deadline in April. 

Cooper said ECE's communication has improved since operators spoke out in the spring, but asked, "how much of that consultation is being accurately reflected in policy?"

"I guess that kind of remains to be seen," she said.

She said she knows of at least two N.W.T. day home operators planning to close their doors in April, once their current agreements expire.

"I have spent my entire year waiting for the other shoe to drop, and so there are women who are not waiting for the shoe. They're like, 'We're done,'" Cooper said of those planning to close. "This affects your mental health. You know that your livelihood is under threat."

Cooper said knowing changes are coming without details makes it impossible to plan for the future. 

"All I know is, I'm good until the end of March and then I have no idea."