Child Care Rates to Drop Tomorrow
Child care fees will be reduced in Nova Scotia effective tomorrow. Fees for accessing licensed, funded child care will drop by an average of 25 per cent.
Through the Nova Scotia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, parents will save anywhere between $3 and $10.50 per day, per child, based on the child's age.
Education Minister Becky Druhan says, “ I'm incredibly excited to offer real savings to families across the province. This is the first fee reduction on our way to achieving $10 a day daycare.”
Licensed centres that accept the 2022-23 annual funding agreement, which reflects the principles of the Canada-wide agreement, will be provided with full funding to offset the fee reduction. To date, 98 per cent of operators have signed the agreement.
Reduced fees are applied retroactively to January 1st, meaning parents will receive a cheque or credit from their child-care centre for amounts paid above the new rates from January to March. Parents can expect to see the retroactive funds by the end of May.
The Government of Canada is making an investment to build a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system in partnership with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners. Nearly all of Canada's provinces and territories, including Nova Scotia, have either announced child-care fee reductions or have already achieved an average cost of $10-a-day or lower for regulated child care.
One Cumberland mother of two said, “The 25 per cent fee reduction is going to free a large amount of money each month that normally goes towards my daycare bill.” Kelly MacDonald says, “The benefits are numerous - less financial worries alleviates stress which allows me to be a better parent, and the extra money allows us more opportunities to do things that we might not have been able to afford before like family trips, savings to contribute to my children's RESP, and extracurricular activities.”
The 25 per cent reduction is an initial step in reducing child-care fees for Nova Scotian families by 50 per cent, on average, by the end of 2022, and an average of $10-a-day by March 31, 2026.
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