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Child-care workers are calling Premier Rodney MacDonald's announcement on new child-care initiatives disappointing and vague.
The plan, backed by $5.2 million in federal funds, includes 500 more spaces for children, a plan to retain and attract workers, and changes to the criteria under which families receive subsidies.
"The announcement itself was rather disappointing. The majority of these were not new initiatives," said Margo Kirk, executive director of the University Children's Centre on South Street, and a member of the Action Coalition on Early Childhood Education and Care.
Child care is expensive, so the government needs to make it accessible and affordable, said Tanis Crosby, executive director of YWCA Halifax.
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The initiatives announced yesterday were already part of the province's 10- year plan, Kirk said, with the exception of the enhanced stabilization grant that promises higher wages for child-care workers.
Day-care advocates applauded those changes, but said the plan doesn't elaborate on how the government will attract and keep workers, or what type of family would benefit from the changes. Nor does it state anything about subsidized spaces, or even when the plan will be implemented.
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- reprinted from the Halifax Daily News