Transition to a publicly funded system will be worth it

Over the past week or so, and as information has started coming forward about how our province will transition from a privately delivered child-care system to a publicly funded one, the concern among private child-care operators, both not-for-profit and commercial, is understandable.

This is a significant paradigm shift as we start to consider that child care is an important public service rather than a market commodity.

Our current system has been built through the hard work and dedication of private operators and organizations, and for that we should be thankful.

However, it’s become painfully clear that the way that we have always done things is not working. If it did work, then we would have well-paid early childhood educators (ECEs) and affordable child-care spaces for all who need them when, in fact, we have the opposite.

I certainly appreciate the role that the private sector has played in supplying our province with child-care spaces, and this hard work needs to be acknowledged. The best way to do this would be for the province to provide clear information to everyone as we all move forward with the new way of doing things, but this is not always straightforward or easy.

I know from my past work as a civil servant that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you wait until your new plans are completely finalized before presenting them, you’ll get criticized for not being transparent. If you release your plan without all of the details as you await consultation from the sector, you’ll be criticized for not giving enough information. It is a difficult position to be in.

One of the main concerns being expressed by commercial operators of child care is related to a perceived unfair treatment of women entrepreneurs. It is certainly true that the majority of child-care centre owners are women.

But what is also true is that there are thousands of women working for these women entrepreneurs who are not making a living wage, nor are they necessarily receiving pensions or benefits.

There are also thousands of women who cannot join the labour force because they either can’t afford child care or don’t have access to child care. As long as regulated child care is offered as it is now, then this won’t change.

So — a complex issue indeed. The days and months ahead will be interesting and, at times, difficult. Making such a drastic change and dealing with such complicated decisions while also dealing with a pandemic and an extreme shortage of qualified ECEs is a lot. We’ll have to hold on and work together in order for change to happen.

I’ve been an advocate for child care for over 30 years, and during this time, I have met hundreds of dedicated, hard-working early-childhood educators. They are the true backbone of the Nova Scotia early-learning and child-care system, and it is so important that we create the conditions where they can be well-recognized and well-remunerated for the work that they do.

Privately operated childcare centres (both commercial and not-for-profit) that have to worry about the bottom line are not able to provide wages, benefits and working conditions that will adequately retain qualified educators.

This is one of the reasons why many ECEs who were working in regulated child care have moved to pre-primary positions — because pre-primary is part of a publicly funded system of education.

The bottom line is that this is the time — the first time in my 30 years of advocacy — that we can finally start working on a publicly funded system. There will be challenges ahead, but it is vital that it happens.

Christine McLean is associate professor, child and youth studies, Mount Saint Vincent University, in Halifax.