Feds spending $20M to expand N.S. child care

Ottawa is spending nearly $20 million to help families access affordable child care in Nova Scotia.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland with federal cabinet ministers Jenna Sudds and Becky Druhan made the announcement in Bridgewater Tuesday.

Nearly $20 million over four years will go to the goal of building 9,500 $10-a-day child care spaces in this province by March 2026.

The government says this investment through the new $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund will help more families save up to $6,000 per year, per child.

According to a release, the Canada-wide fund goes to provinces and territories to support infrastructure projects for not-for-profit child care spaces in underserved communities, such as rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities.

Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, Becky Druhan says, “Child care spaces are in high demand across the province. To meet those demands, we need to use innovative approaches to make child care more accessible. The major infrastructure program, the minor infrastructure program and the family home start-up program, all play important parts in the expansion and transformation of child care in Nova Scotia.”