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Saskatchewan is one of only two provinces that has not yet signed a federal agreement for child-care funding.
The other provinces and territories have signed onto a new federal child-care agreement that will see them split nearly $37 billion, extending the program until 2031. Alberta is the other holdout.
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More than lower fees: expert
On the CBC Radio's The 306, Susan Prentice, a professor at the University of Manitoba's Department of Sociology, said that the funding goes beyond just lowering fees.
"It helps to start up new spaces. The federal government also provided capital in addition to operating funding that helps facilities bring the cost down for parents and that helps to increase the quality and keep trained staff in the workforce," she said.
Prentice said that before the federal program was in place, parents faced higher child-care costs but since the program was implemented, child-care fees have dropped by more than 50 per cent.
She said that Saskatchewan still faces a shortage of child-care spaces compared to other provinces.
"I think it's probably a legacy of feeling like a rural province that doesn't really think that mothers are in the labour force in the numbers that they are, and that hasn't taken family policy very seriously," Prentice said.
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