12/10/2025
Nova Scotia’s child care system is at a crossroads.
A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia, co-authored with Child Care Now Nova Scotia, finds that while our province has met its federal child care agreement targets on paper, families, educators, and communities are still being left behind.
CCPA
🔍 The report shows:
• Current funding doesn’t cover the real cost of quality care.
• Some families are still paying $5,000–$8,000 a year for child care.
• Only about 30% of communities have enough regulated spaces to meet the target of serving 59% of children.
• Early Childhood Educators continue to face low wages, pay gaps, and limited training supports, making it hard to recruit and retain the workforce children depend on.
• Weak accountability rules mean public dollars can still fuel the growth of lower-quality, for-profit chains, including a recent sale of 11 centres (1,700+ spaces) to a multinational corporation.
The roadmap is clear:
✔ treat early learning and child care as a public good, not a patchwork market
✔ invest in public and non-profit expansion, not corporate chains
✔ ensure decent wages and good working conditions for ECEs – because their working conditions are children’s learning conditions
✔ build a system that is universal, affordable, accessible, high-quality, inclusive, and accountable
If we follow the evidence, Nova Scotia can build a child care system that works for children, families, educators, and the broader economy for generations to come. If we take detours, we risk losing this historic opportunity.
CCPA
📘 Read the full report, The Roadmap is Clear, Detours are Risky: Nova Scotia’s Child Care System at a Crossroads, here:
👉 https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/the-roadmap-is-clear-detours-are-risky-nova-scotias-child-care-system-at-a-crossroads/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-roadmap-is-clear-detours-are-risky-nova-scotias-child-care-system-at-a-crossroads
💬 What are you seeing in your community – long waitlists, high fees, staff turnover? Tell us in the comments or send us a message. Your stories matter.
