Queens Daycare extension under construction, September 2023. Photo Scott Christian

Queens Daycare Association has set spring of 2024 to open their expanded childcare centre.

The facility currently provides care for 42 children and 8 infants. Once renovations are complete another 65 childcare spaces will be opened.

President of the Queens Daycare Association Scott Christian says some reconfiguration of classes will be necessary during construction.

“The new side is expected to be complete this winter. We’re aiming for December or January to have the new building portion complete and then we’ll just migrate all the kiddos over there onto the new side so that there’s no sort of disruption to the operation,” said Christian. “Migrate everybody over there and then we’ll be getting the upstairs of the old Mount Pleasant school which the program is currently taking place in and that will be completely renovated.”

The renovations will involve the creation of 13 new toilets and sinks to meet provincial guidelines that dictate the ratio of children to washroom facilities.

Christian says finding qualified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) has been challenging in the past and he appreciates the work being done by the provincial government to open new spaces to train more childcare professionals.

“It’s really challenging to get the infrastructure and the labour force pieces to kind of move in tandem with one another and so sort of, delays to the construction project have meant that now we’re further along in terms of the province investing and creating more and developing more ECEs.,” said Christian. “So, we’re hopeful that when we do get to a point where we’re able to open up both sides of the new and newly renovated daycare that we will be able to hire and have the type of team that we will be able to pretty quickly ratchet up our program to accept new families into the program because we still are maintaining a waitlist that fluctuates between 40 and 50 kids.”

Christian says the childcare landscape has changed drastically over the past few years as different levels of government try to find a path forward that works for children, parents, and care providers.

“The move to sort of, $10 a day average childcare across the province and across the country has been challenging,” said Christian. “It’s just structurally, is very complex but I have to applaud the government has been, well it’s been challenging and while there’s lots of difficult decisions and what they’ve been very supportive, I would say they’ve been very supportive to the community-based organisations who are trying to navigate it.”

Christian sees more young families in Queens and says the renovations will be key to the Queens Daycare meeting the demands of the community.

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Photo Ed Halverson

It’s business as usual at schools across Nova Scotia as the province and the union representing school support workers have come to a tentative agreement.

The deal still needs to be ratified by the 5,400 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

The tentative agreement was announced early Wednesday morning.

The union was poised to strike at 12:01 Friday.

CUPE represents a wide range of school support workers across Nova Scotia including bus drivers, cleaners, maintenance and tradespeople, Early Childhood Educators, Educational Program Assistants and Teaching Assistants, and food services staff.

The union was fighting for increased wages.

A petition circulated by CUPE indicates most members earn below Nova Scotia’s median wage of $35,000 per year an amount which has fallen significantly behind inflation.

Neither union executives or government officials are willing to comment on the details until union membership has had a chance to review and vote on the tentative agreement.

Union officials did say they will work to get the information to members and arrange a vote as quickly as possible.

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SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

Students may be getting an extra-long weekend if the province and the union representing school support workers can’t come to an agreement on a new contract.

Approximately 5,400 members of CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees will be in a legal strike position effective 12:01 Friday morning.

CUPE represents a wide range of school support workers across Nova Scotia including bus drivers, cleaners, maintenance and tradespeople, Early Childhood Educators, Educational Program Assistants and Teaching Assistants, and food services staff.

The sticking point in negotiations appears to be wages.

In a petition circulated by CUPE in November the union states the “majority of members earn below Nova Scotia’s median wage of $35,000 per year. Our wages have fallen significantly behind inflation. More than half of our members have had to take other jobs to make ends meet, and the vast majority find that wage increases since 2015 have not met our financial needs.”

Because the union represents so many people across the province the impact of a strike will be felt differently depending on the region.

CUPE Local 4682 represents workers on the South Shore.

The South Shore Regional Centre for Education sent a notification explaining the impacts a strike will have on schools:

• Grades Pre-Primary – 6 students will continue to attend classes at their school.
• Learning for most Grades 7 – 12 students will shift to online except for students who regularly attend class in the learning center who can continue to do so.
• Bussing will not be available for any students, unless previous arrangements are in place for the child to be bussed privately.
• Schools will not be available for before or after school use, except for any existing childcare programs.
• Extracurricular activities that require the use of the interior of the school or school buses are suspended. However, class trips or other activities that do not involve interior school use or buses, as well as sports on fields and school grounds, may continue.

In the statement released April 14, the Regional Centre goes on to say, “We all hope that we can reach an agreement to avoid a labour disruption. However, we must continue to develop plans to ensure that student learning can continue, if a strike occurs.”

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NSGEU workers in Annapolis Valley strike October 24, 2022. Photo Courtesy NSGEU

Workers at schools across the South Shore will be on strike Tuesday morning.

The South Shore Regional Center for Education issued a statement informing parents schools will remain open for grade primary to 12 students, but because Early Childhood Educators won’t be in the classroom the pre-primary program will not be offered.

Members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union Local 70 including Early Childhood Educators; Outreach Workers, Student Support Workers, Office Administration Assistants; Clerks and IT Support Specialists voted with a 92 percent majority to reject the latest contract offer from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education.

They’re unhappy people who do the same jobs are paid differently depending on which Centre for Education they work for in the province.

Across Nova Scotia, each of the seven Regional Centres and the French school board negotiate their own contracts with their employees.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says it doesn’t make sense to have separate contracts with different rates of compensation when the money is coming from one source: the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

“It’s one department and it should be the same wage across,” said Mullen. “ And you know, we have government on record saying they want to get there too. So, now’s the time.”

South Shore Regional Centre for Education Executive Director Paul Ash says the Regional Centre will do its best to get people into key positions to minimize the disruption.

“Obviously when you lose 160 individuals as a result of an impending strike action, we won’t have the same number of resources available but our first and primary goal is to focus on continuing to support the needs of our students,” said Ash.

He says since the days of the old school boards, each region has negotiated contracts with their own employees.

Ash believes a fair offer was made to the Local to stave off a strike and says steps are being prepared to provide parity across all school districts.

“There is a plan to conduct a comprehensive review of all the jobs within all the entities and then align that compensation across the province,” said Ash. “Unfortunately, we’re not at a point where that is happening right now.”

Of the seven regional centres, NSGEU represents five, including Tri-County, South Shore, Annapolis Valley, Chignecto-Central and Halifax.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen (left) on the picket line with an Annapolis Valley worker October 24, 2022. Photo courtesy NSGEU

NSGEU President Mullen says she’d like to see the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development take a more prominent role in negotiations to ensure parity across all regions.

“They’re not sitting in the room when we negotiate, but I’m sure they’re behind the curtain,” said Mullen.

The South Shore is the second local to strike after NSGEU members in Annapolis Valley already walked off the job Monday.

Mullen says her members would rather be in school doing what they love instead of walking a picket line.

“That’s the heartbreaking part of all this. It is not the children or the school administrator they’re upset with. It is government,” said Mullen. “And it’s government who can make this right.”

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Rendering of Queens Daycare expansion courtesy Well Engineered Inc.

It appears Queens new daycare building will be in place before enough staff are found.

The planning and design phase of the new annex is complete and permits are in place to break ground this fall.

The addition of the 3,800 square foot annex will nearly double the daycare’s existing 4,000 square feet allowing the facility to increase the number of children it can support from 42 to 91.

Chair of the Queens Daycare Association Scott Christian says the $2 million investment from the provincial government will mean a new facility tailored to the needs of a daycare.

However, finding qualified Early Childhood Educators will be more challenging.

Christian says with waitlists in the three streams of infant, pre-primary and afterschool care it will take time to find staff to allow them to reach their capacity.

“There’s going to be a lot of excitement around this,” said Christian. “We have this big, new shiny building. The reality is we’re not going to be able to flip a switch and welcome 90 children into our program.”

Christian says the issue is that many initiatives are only now coming online and it could be several years before today’s students are ready for the workforce.

“The requirement is that two-thirds of your staff need to be certified ECEs and the reality is that the labour force does not exist right now,” said Christian. “The province is doing wonderful things in terms of working with the colleges, working with Mount St. Vincent University to really ramp up those programs and the capacity of those programs to be churning out ECEs.”

The entire daycare project, managed by Well Engineered Inc. out of Dartmouth will be completed in two phases, construction of the annex then renovation of the existing school building.

Christian says they expect to welcome children into a fully expanded and renovated Queens Daycare by December 2023.

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Queens County Daycare. Photo Ed Halverson

Families will pay 25 percent less for child care effective Friday April 1.

The change applies for children enrolled in licensed, funded child care through the Nova Scotia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

Based on the child’s age, parents and guardians will save anywhere between $3 and $10.50 per day.

In a release, Becky Druhan, Nova Scotia Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development said, “This is the first fee reduction on our way to achieving $10 a day daycare, on average, for families by 2026 and a major step towards making child care more affordable and accessible for parents.”

Licensed centres that have signed-on to the 2022-23 annual funding agreement, will be provided with full funding to offset the fee reduction and which will be applied directly to bills.

Since being announced, 98 per cent of child care facility operators have signed the agreement, accounting for 99 per cent of child-care spaces in the province.

Some parents can look forward to receiving a refund as the reduced fees are applied retroactively to January 1, 2022.

Amounts paid above the new rates between January and March will be returned in the form of a cheque or credit.

Parents can expect to see the retroactive funds by the end of May.

According to the release, the province is still working on its strategy to increase wages and benefits for early childhood educators by this fall.

Nova Scotia is one of the majority of provinces that has negotiated deals with the Government of Canada and either announced reduced child-care fees or already achieved an average cost of $10-a-day or less for regulated child care.

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