Families will pay 25 per cent 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 2022-2023 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 Jan. 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.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.