Child Care Now Nova Scotia calls on provincial government to make childcare more accessible
The provincial government is being called on this week to make childcare more accessible.
Child Care Now Nova Scotia (CCN-NS) published a blog post on Wednesday after the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) released its annual 2023 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia: Families Deserve Action, Not Excuses.
The report shows that in 2021, child poverty rates in Nova Scotia increased by 11.4 per cent, the highest single-year increase since 1989. Low-income families in the province are struggling to have access to services such as daycare, Kenya Thompson from CCN-NS says.
Through funding from the Canada-wide early learning and child care agreement, Nova Scotia has committed to providing $10 a day childcare services by 2026.
“$10 per day is still a really steep investment for a lot of low income families that are living off of social assistance,” Thompson says. “It represents 11 per cent of their income.”
CCN-NS and CCPA-NS are calling on the provincial government to remove barriers to universal public services.