Following the recent provincial election, child care workers in Nova Scotia are demanding action from the newly elected government to improve child care infrastructure in the province.
“This is an opportunity for our elected representatives to show us whether or not they value child care,” said Margot Nickerson, president of CUPE 4745, representing early childhood educators across the Halifax Regional Municipality. “The province needs to view investment in child care workers as an investment in Nova Scotia. We need to see more support in the classroom, more staff in child care centres, and we need to see more child care made more affordable.”
“Our members are overworked, understaffed, and undervalued,” said Jennifer Chase, president of CUPE 3688, representing workers at Bridgewater Day Care Centre. “What we’re seeing is that families either can’t find affordable child care spaces or, where they can, are sending their kids to child care centres that can’t meet their needs because there aren’t enough trained staff.”
CUPE NS welcomes recent research demonstrating extensive economic benefits of the new federal $10-per-day early learning and child care, ELCC, program. The report from the Centre for Future Work, released recently by Child Care Now, shows the ELCC program has created tens of thousands of new jobs across the country, allowed more women to work full-time hours, increased wages, and increased our national GDP.
“This is about the value of public services, and whether or not Tim Houston thinks Nova Scotians deserve accessible, inclusive, and quality child care,” said Nan McFadgen, CUPE Nova Scotia President.