EXCERPTS
A rally organized by Child Care Now Nova Scotia is planning to converge in front of the Nova Scotia Legislature in Halifax today at 1:30 p.m.
Planned to coincide with the return of MLAs as they return to Province House to begin an emergency session of the legislature, the group says they will be protesting the state of the province’s child care workforce which needs to be urgently addressed.
“Now that the Premier has called the emergency sitting, the time is opportune to address the crisis in the child care workforce,” notes Bobbi-Lynn Keating, director of Peter Green Hall Child Care in a news release. “As ECEs burn out, find jobs in other sectors, and refuse to continue to be exploited, this means child care centres are losing spaces and closing child care classrooms.”
She states that employers are struggling to find and retain workers, which is having a compounding effect on the sector.
According to the news release, early childhood educators in Atlantic Canada make less than any other ECEs in the rest of Canada.
The Nova Scotia Legislature will be a hub of activity this afternoon as there is another rally set to take place at Province House.
Beginning at 1:30 p.m. the The Rally in Support of the Environment will also commence at the Granville Street entrance of the Nova Scotia Legislature.
Several environmental groups will be gathering to protest the lack of action taken to protect the province’s ecosystems and democracy.