Many Maritime daycare providers struggling with rising costs and demand

Those who run daycares – and those who rely on them – are stretched thin this summer.

Many daycares, which are necessities for families, are feeling the pinch amid high demand and high costs.

The Wee Care Developmental Centre in Halifax is feeling the pressure. The facility, which cares for children aged four months to six years, has been in operation for roughly 50 years.

“We feed 75 children and that’s three meals a day. Grocery bills are huge and electricity, oil, everything are way higher than they were three years ago,” says executive director Beth Towler.

Independent daycares are also feeling stretched thin. Dana Wolfe runs a daycare out of her home called DD’s Daycare. She looks after eight children, which is full capacity for her. She says she’s fortunate to have families who donate snacks.

“I have a lot of help from the families, they donate lots of snacks and everybody brings lots of snacks when we are out, like watermelon and fruit. Feeding them healthy is quite expensive,” says Wolfe.

Parents are dealing with high costs as well.

“We both work full time and room rent is so expensive so there’s not a lot left over for daycare. So, we chose not to let my daughter go into a daycare after that,” says Goldy Das, Halifax resident.

Das’s daughter was on a waitlist for more than a year and by the time she got off it, they no longer required it.

“I came here in 2023 and my daughter went to school this year and is still on the waiting list and I told them I don’t need any daycare now because she’s in school,” says Das.

Stephanie Van Zanten and her husband from Ottawa have three children – ages four, six and eight – and say they now have subsidized spots for daycare.

“We had our first couple kids and it was before the subsidized spots, so it’s been amazing to see the change, because now our daycare costs are much, much less so that’s been really, really important but we still need more, more of it and more centres,” says Van Zanten.

“Basically you have to put yourself on every list in the city as soon as possible. It’s basically, like, you get pregnant and you put yourself on the list and then hope for the best.”

“There’s not enough of them, I’m always full. I never have a spot open for more than from somebody spreading the word and then they’re filled,” says Wolfe.

Facilities like Wee Care Development Centre have only seen their waitlist grow since the fees for care dropped. Their waitlist now sits at 700.

“It’s wonderful for families to be able to afford child care. That’s the way it should be but the detriment to that is unable to give them a space because our waitlist is so incredibly huge,” says Towler.

When these prices dropped in 2022, fees froze which in turn impacted revenue for providers who haven’t been able to charge more. Towler explained that increasing parents’ fees was how they would make their revenue.

“There really wasn’t the funding there to cover it, but slowly but surely there is now, the funding from the department is being recognized as what’s needed,” says Towler.

But she admits it’s not enough and they are still always looking for added support.

“We are also a non-profit organization so we are always looking to where we can get money, but the struggle in groceries alone is just absolutely skyrocketing and electric, everything has risen massively and unfortunately people’s wages haven’t risen so we aren’t getting any more money,” says Towler.