Saskatchewan called a 'childcare desert' in new report

Child care options are scarce in Saskatchewan, according to a new report.

The "Not Done Yet" report done by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says that 92 per cent of young children in the province don’t have easy access to childcare.

“Saskatchewan has the highest proportion of children living in child care deserts by far: 85,500 younger children live in a postal code where there are more than three children per licensed space,” the report said.

“This means that many more children are living in child care deserts in Saskatchewan than Quebec, even though Quebec has four times the child population.”

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The report said that parents in downtown Regina have the best chance of finding a nearby child care space. However, it said in Saskatoon and Regina, there are about two licensed spaces for every 10 children, a coverage rate of just over 20 per cent.

“St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Ontario cities of Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton and Brampton, and Saskatoon scored particularly badly, with low availability of infant spaces compared to their population of infants. In those cities, there is less than one licensed space for every 10 infants.”

Saskatchewan's Education Minister said the report does not tell the full story.

“My understanding is that that report is based on postal codes which don’t really, I think, tell the full story. If parents want, for example, say they live on the outskirts of say, Regina, but they want child care closer to where they work, say downtown, then that postal code of where they live really is irrelevant,” Minister Dustin Duncan said when asked about the report in the legislature on Tuesday.

Duncan also noted Saskatchewan was the third province to hammer out a deal to offer federally-funded $10-a-day child care.

“We are working towards implementing the child care agreement, adding thousands of spaces across the province,” he said during question period.