(Halifax) – Provincial government plans to spend $22 million expanding so-called ‘family home day care’ is a slap in the face to the province’s Early Childhood Educators.
That today from CUPE Nova Scotia President Danny Cavanagh who says, “This follows on the heels of a paltry $5 million announcement a few weeks ago which was supposedly earmarked for wages and child care centres. ECE Teachers continue to work for poverty wages in this province.
“In reality, what this really amounts to is a crass attempt by the government to buy votes in the rural mainland, where the governing Tories have most of their support. Everybody knows there’s a shortage of child care spaces across the province, but this is nothing more than spending money on glorified babysitting,” says Cavanagh.
“And there are many unanswered questions about this scheme,” adds Cavanagh. “First off, who are the agencies which will monitor these homes? Is any of this money going into support for the agency? Can a commercial centre act as an ‘agency’”, he asks.
“Most importantly, where does quality fit in? With this move, the MacDonald government appears to be abandoning any pretense of building a child care system for working families in Nova Scotia,” says Cavanagh.
“The real trickery in this is that if it’s existing, unlicensed care that we’re talking about, then we are not actually increasing spaces, only licensing the ones we already have,” he says.
For information:
Danny Cavanagh John McCracken
President, CUPE Nova Scotia CUPE Communications Rep.
(902) 957-0822 (Cell) 455-4180 (0)