Summary
In 2021, the Ministry of Education entered into the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Federal Government and received $738 million in federal funding by March 31, 2025. The Agreement intends to ensure all families in Canada have access to high-quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive child care no matter where they live, targeting children under age six.
Under the Agreement, the Ministry committed to increase the number of child care spaces to about 46,000 by March 31, 2026. It reported creating 41,163 spaces by March 2025 with 7,635 of these spaces still under development. At June 2025, Saskatchewan had over 1,200 licensed child care providers (centres and homes).
We audited the Ministry of Education’s processes to achieve the accessibility outcome of the Agreement and found it had effective processes, except where it needs to:
- Develop a sustainable funding model for the provision of child care in Saskatchewan. Without adequate funding, the quality of care may be impacted or providers may no longer operate, limiting access to child care.
- Sufficiently analyze key data (e.g., unmet demand, space utilization, early childhood educators required) to assess whether child care is truly accessible across Saskatchewan and whether the Ministry is meeting the intent of the Agreement. We found 694 instances where child care spaces were underutilized compared to approved spaces. This suggests the Ministry may have approved new child care spaces in locations that do not need them. Also, not analyzing the supply of early childhood educators increases the risk of approving spaces that cannot be staffed.
- Track and report to the Federal Government annually on all key information as outlined in the Agreement (e.g., unmet demand, coverage rate, spaces available and net new spaces by age group of children in homes) to show progress in fulfilling agreed upon outcomes. Unmet demand information would show the Federal Government whether there are a significant number of families waiting for child care in certain communities across the province.
At October 2025, the Ministry had yet to renew the Agreement (set to expire March 2026) with the Federal Government—one of only two provinces that had not yet done so.
Expanding access to licensed, quality child care strengthens families and communities by enabling increased participation in the workforce to attain greater economic security.