Yellowknife mother to open day home after long wait for child care, says it wasn't easy

Yellowknife child-care providers say red tape and inadequate funding are making it hard to open new day homes in the city.

Courtney Jung is set to open a new day home in Yellowknife with eight spaces next week, but she says the process of getting a licence through the N.W.T. Department of Education, Culture & Employment (ECE) was "unorganized" and frustrating.

"It's all over the place," she said. 

Jung said ECE employees would frequently lose track of emails and request information she already provided. 

The territorial government has committed to creating 300 new child-care spaces by March 2026 through the Northwest Territories Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. That agreement was signed in 2021 but as of September 2024, the territory had only added 85 of those promised spots so far.

In the meantime, there is a huge shortage of child-care spaces in N.W.T., including in Yellowknife.

Jung decided to open her day home, Lil Northerners Day Home, after her own experience waiting for child care. 

She told CBC News she got on child-care waitlists six months before her daughter was born, and then waited nearly two years for a spot.

"I pretty much got told I'm probably never gonna get in," said Jung.

Jung said in her case she was lucky to be able to extend her maternity leave and take a leave of absence from her teaching job.

"I've had friends that I met through my pregnancy that sat on my couch crying because they had no child care. I had a friend who was paying into a day home months before she needed it."

Jung and her friends aren't alone.

The Yellowknife Daycare Association, one of the largest daycare operators in the N.W.T. capital, told CBC News it stopped adding families to its waitlist after it reached 500 people.

Mixed messaging from ECE department

Jung started applying for a day home licence back in January. At the time, she told CBC News the ECE staff member assigned to her file led her to believe she would be able to open her facility by April 1. Shortly after that, Jung says she was switched to a new staff member who told her that wasn't a reasonable timeframe. 

"She said it was because it was fiscal year end, and she had too many deadlines," Jung said. "It just didn't seem like it was going to happen, and that I might not open until June."

Jung said dealing with the department, being in limbo after completing paperwork, and uncertainty around government funding for new day homes led her to contact the minister of education.

"I didn't get a response back from her until somebody messaged me saying we desperately need a [day home] spot for a doctor," Jung said. "And I said, well, I'm having issues opening up. I can't get through to the minister of education.

"Then all of a sudden I magically got a response from the secretary of the minister."

CBC News contacted ECE as well as the press secretary for Education, Culture and Employment Minister Caitlin Cleveland, but did not receive a response by deadline.

Despite challenges continuing as recent as this week, Jung said she's now set to open her day home on April 1. After announcing the news on Facebook, she said she received an influx of message requests.

"I had so many people message me, people saying 'my job depends on this'. Families are desperate, they're willing to pay full price for child care."

Day homes at risk of closing

Another day home provider in Yellowknife says that Jung isn't the only provider who is struggling with red tape.

Yvette Cooper runs Yvette's Day Home in Yellowknife, and is secretary of the N.W.T. Early Childhood Association. Cooper operated a day home in Alberta for 10 years before moving to Yellowknife, and has run her day home in the N.W.T. capital for 10 years now as well.

She said the paperwork and administrative duties related to running a day home in N.W.T. have increased over the years, while the amount of money she brings in isn't keeping up with inflation.

In December 2021, the N.W.T. signed a $51-million deal with Ottawa, which brought child care prices down to an average of $10 a day in 2024. Under the deal, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment subsidizes the cost of child-care spaces so licensed providers can charge families less.

But the deal also limits how much providers can increase their fees, to between two and six per cent a year depending on their total fee rates. But Cooper said many child-care providers haven't had their rates increased since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They promised us that we were going to get that every year and they have not followed through," said Cooper.

This week, the ECE department also announced new funding to increase wages for centre-based child-care workers in N.W.T., which the department said will raise employee wages across the board by $9 per hour. However, the funding increase does not extend to day home operators.

Cooper said the current situation is putting many Yellowknife day homes at risk of closing and making it difficult for communities in need of child care to open new centres. She added that under the current agreement day home providers can't charge extra for food or taking children on "field trip" style activities. 

"Day homes are the cheapest and fastest way to create spaces. And instead of making that a pleasant experience, I don't know why the ECE has chosen to make it so miserable," said Cooper.