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By the time April Fleet pulls into the daycare parking lot each morning, her 14-month-old daughter has already spent more time in the car than many commuters.
That’s because the closest centre where she could secure a spot for her daughter is in Bedford, N.S. — a 45-minute drive from their home in the rural community of Middle Musquodoboit.
Fleet lives in what the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) calls a child-care “desert,” defined as an area where there are less than three daycare spaces per 10 children.
“My poor little baby spends over 10 hours in the car every week,” said Fleet, who works full time in the Dartmouth area. “She’s watching a lot of iPad shows on her commute, we’re singing lots of songs trying to keep her happy. Sometimes she’s getting carsick.”
That’s the reality for many Nova Scotia parents who have to travel long distances for child care.
According to the CCPA, 34 per cent of non-school-aged children in the province live in a child-care desert, while 36 per cent live in an area with “inadequate coverage.”
The remaining 30 per cent live in communities that meet the federal government’s target laid out in the province’s bilateral child-care agreement with Ottawa — at least 5.9 spaces per 10 children.
Nova Scotia’s minister of education and early childhood development told CBC News in an interview that the province remains “fully committed” to increasing child-care coverage.
Brendan Maguire said there are currently 32 daycare expansion projects underway, or at completion, to the tune of $50 million of provincial funding.
“Personally, I don’t want people driving that far. We want child care accessible right in their community, and that’s why we have all these projects complete or in the process of being completed,” said Maguire.
Since 2021, the provincial government has created 8,910 child-care spaces across the province, while 1,653 spaces have been lost, according to an online dashboard.
Maguire said he’s confident the province will meet its commitment to the federal government of creating 9,500 new early learning and child-care spaces by March 2026.
Since the beginning of the year, Maguire’s department has announced approximately 1,157 new daycare spaces in rural communities, according to a series of news releases.
That includes new centres to be built at Acadia University, St. Francis Xavier University and Cape Breton University.
Christine Saulnier, the Nova Scotia director of CCPA, said the province is on the right track.
“We’ve made strides,” she said. “I really do applaud the governments that have put the investment in — finally — but we have more work to do.”
She said she wants to see more access to child care even beyond the province’s commitment to 59 per cent coverage.
Maguire insists “the job doesn’t stop” once that target is met.
The CCPA also calls for the creation of a centralized agency that would oversee the expansion of child care to build a more “systemic” approach. Saulnier said this could help ensure that spaces are being created where the demand exists, while also streamlining the process for daycare providers in the non-profit sector who want to grow.
Fleet is encouraged by the work that’s underway to improve the system, but she said the lack of available child care has forced her family to consider making difficult choices.
She said her husband has contemplated switching jobs, and working out-of-province to increase his income so she could stay home with her daughter. The young family has also considered moving closer to the city, but she said the cost of housing is out of reach.
“I know a lot of people that just had to quit their jobs and just didn’t return to work because they couldn’t find daycare,” she said.
“I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s really limiting to [people] in rural communities who want to start a family.”
She’s on the waitlist for the only daycare facility in her community, which is only about five minutes away from her house. It’s one of the rural daycares that’s been approved for provincial funding to expand, but it does not yet have capacity for children under 18 months old.
Fleet hopes her daughter will get a spot there in the spring. But in the meantime, the long drive to and from daycare remains part of their daily routine.
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