Excerpts
Project Overview
This project was informed by participant voice and participant need. Prior to the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Agreements and the $10-a-day child care commitments, participants in YWCA’s programs expressed challenges in accessing early learning programs due to low availability and high fees. This limited the ability to access employment and economic security as a result. While some participants could be supported in accessing Provincial child care subsidies, many others were ineligible. In response to this, we built financial support for child care into our program budgets, where possible, to directly address this barrier to employment.
After the implementation of the $10-a-day programs, many YWCA St. John’s program participants expressed continued challenges as a result of lack of access to child care, noting an inability to find a space and navigating lengthy waitlist processes. These participant insights align with research stating that labour market engagement of women and gender-diverse parents is most impacted by lack of affordable child care access (McCuaig et al., 2022; Jimmy Pratt Foundation et al., 2025). Systemic changes are required to ensure we reach the goal of a truly universal child care system so that all children can access early learning programs and parents have the freedom to participate in the labour market.
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This report will provide an overview of the key research that informed the project, which was grounded in ensuring the voices of diverse communities are prioritized. It will detail the provincial consultation process and provide an overview of findings as well as key community led solutions and recommendations.
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SUMMARY: FINDINGS, SOLUTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
8 Community Identified Barriers to Accessible Child Care
1. Lack of spaces and extensive waitlists: Lack of available $10-a-day spaces was the leading barrier.
2. Cost: Unregulated spaces are financially prohibitive; $10-a-day is beyond the means of some families; subsidies don’t solve the problem.
3. ECE workforce: Lack of consistent and compensated workforce creates barriers for families.
4. Hours: Lack of access to non-standard child care hours impacts access to employment, particularly for shift workers.
5. Quality: Participants reported having to accept spaces with inconsistent and inadequate care.
6. Transportation: Regional and municipal transportation systems limit access to available spaces.
7. Access to information: Provincial child care system and its Early Learning Gateway is difficult to navigate and lacking transparency.
8. Inclusion: Child care centres without adequate support creates barriers for all children, especially those with additional needs.
11 Community Led Solutions & 14 Recommendations
RECRUITMENT & RETENTION OF ECES
Community Led Solution 1: Increase Provincial and Federal investments in the ECE sector, and specifically in the retention of ECEs. Update wage grid, implement mandatory paid sick days, and a defined benefits pension plan. Ensure regional wage grid to account for known cost of living differences across the province.
Community Led Solution 2: Simplify pathways for foreign credential recognition for those who were trained as ECEs or educators in another country.
Community Led Solution 3: Increase seats in the in-person ECE public post-secondary programs to ensure access for local and international students.
Community Led Solution 4: Increase access to funding opportunities for ECE students, including scholarships for local and international students.
Community Led Solution 5: Create incentives to encourage high school graduates to choose Early Childhood Education. Create employment incentives that encourage ECEs to take positions in rural communities.
Community Led Solution 6: Build stronger partnerships between schools and early childhood education sector to promote the ECE field as a viable career option; increase information on accredited ECE educational pathways as part of career exploration curriculum across the province.
Community Led Solution 7: Launch an information campaign on the impacts ECEs have on the lives of children, families, and communities.
Recommendation 1: Ensure employment equity for Indigenous ECEs. Apply the Calls for Change as put forth by First Light, as pertaining to Action Area 1: Education, Training, and Employment, Focus Area C (First Voice, 2023).
INCREASING ACCESS
Community Led Solution 8: Develop provincial policies that allow for alternative hours of child care operation in both centre and home-based settings, working collaboratively with centres to test extended hours, including weekends and holidays.
Community Led Solution 9: Fund emergency and call-in child care services to operate as existing personal care home worker programs.
Recommendation 2: Replicate the regulations of the Manitoba Government and make child care funding conditional based on inclusion of children with disabilities.
Recommendation 3: Increase funding to ensure that centres are equipped to truly be inclusive to children living with disabilities, including additional staffing.
Recommendation 4: Create mandatory training for all ECEs that focuses on working with children with disabilities and their families.
INFRASTRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT
Community Led Solution 10: Incorporate all child care into the public school system. Build child care into the design of all new school builds.
Community Led Solution 11: Update the Early Learning Gateway so parents can identify and track progress on waitlists.
Recommendation 5: Provincial and Federal Governments must uphold the CWELLC agreements and Bill-C35 to maintain and expand a publicly funded child care system.
Recommendation 6: Maintain and strengthen the $10-a-day program, moving towards reducing the parent fee altogether.
Recommendation 7: Pilot changes to child care regulations to allow testing of ratios and mixed age rooms to meet the unique needs of Newfoundland and Labrador’s diverse geography and population demographics.
Recommendation 8: Include mandatory childcare centre development into all new Government supported infrastructure projects, to ensure equitable access to emerging economic opportunities for women and gender-diverse people in the labour force and ensure communities have opportunities to build local infrastructure.
ANTI-RACISM & DECOLONIZATION
Recommendation 9: Implement First Light’s Calls to Change (REF), as it pertains to Action Area 1: Education, Training, and Employment. Of particular importance to child care is A2, A3, B5, B6, and B7 (First Voice, 2023) ensuring Indigenized curriculum; incorporation of anti-racist curriculum including the histories and cultures of Indigenous Peoples into ECE training programs; Increasing Indigenous access to post-secondary ECE education; building anti-racist education into ECE curriculum.
Recommendation 10: Provincial and Federal Government must work with Indigenous led groups and Indigenous governments in the province to ensure IELCC framework and its intentions are upheld, ensuring regulations and processes are not a hinderance to the delivery of community-driven child care solutions.
Recommendation 11: All early learning centres must provide culturally diverse food options.
Recommendation 12: Ensure all documents included in parent handbooks provided by early learning and child care programs are translated into families’ chosen language.
Recommendation 13: Information on child care access needs to be included in high visibility places including at the airport, medical and public health clinics. Specific focus on accessing child care must be part of immigration and settlement processes and supports.
Recommendation 14: Audit childcare monitoring processes to ensure oversight of child care and early learning programs are culturally informed and prioritize relationship building and community trust.
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