Higgs government wants to reopen child-care deal with Ottawa

The Higgs government says it needs to renegotiate its 2022 child-care agreement with the federal government to address a long wait list for spaces in the province.

Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Bill Hogan wants more flexibility to allocate some funding to for-profit daycares that would become eligible for subsidized spaces under the deal.

The agreement signed in April 2022 requires the funding to go to designated not-for-profit child-care centres.

"The challenge is we just don't have that many not-for-profit spaces," Hogan told reporters, saying the province agreed to the conditions last year because "that was the best deal we had at the time." 

But Opposition Liberal Leader Susan Holt questioned Hogan's claim that the restriction on funding for-profit daycares was the obstacle.

She pointed to existing centres, such as the Carrefour Beausoleil in Miramichi, that she said are designated, not-for-profit and ready to expand if they can access the funding.

"He can help New Brunswickers today and he's not doing it," Holt said.

Around 3,000 families are on a waiting list for daycare spaces around the province. 

In last week's throne speech, the government said it was creating 550 new spaces this year and is using the funding to reduce fees for families by 50 per cent on average.

The funding agreement aims to reduce daycare costs to an average of $10 per day and to create 3,400 new spaces by 2025-26 . 

In question period, Holt said the 550 spaces described in the throne speech for this year don't go far enough to address the existing long wait list.

Hogan said his officials have contacted federal bureaucrats "several times," but so far there has not been movement to change the agreement.

He suggested that Holt, as Liberal leader, might be able to persuade the federal Liberal government to amend the agreement.

"They're Liberals and they're Liberals, so I think she might have a better opportunity in helping us out," the minister said.

It's the latest example of the Higgs government needling Holt and tying her to the unpopular federal government by asking her to help out.

Holt said she has no special access to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and called Hogan's comments "an abdication of responsibility. … If they're telling us they can't do that and they want us to do that work instead, it suggests to me they can't do their jobs."

The five-year federal-provincial agreement is worth $544 million, with Ottawa paying $492 million and New Brunswick putting in $53 million.

The province has also increased wages in the child-care sector, though Green MLA Kevin Arseneau said many workers are still leaving for better salaries as teacher assistants in the public school system.