By David Shuman
The East Preston Day Care Centre will add eight new infant spaces at its existing site and 60 new infant and toddler spaces at its new location at the Akoma Family Centre in Dartmouth.
The federal government is contributing $605 million to build 1500 childcare spaces across the province from 2021-25, along with an additional $70 million to support developing childcare capacity in the province. This funding follows previous federal-provincial partnership to reduce childcare fees to $10 a day.
Kendra Slawter, a mother of a two-year-old attending East Preston Day Care Centre, told the Cooperator in a phone interview that she was relieved to see the new spaces with the reduced rate. “Again, it ties back to women in the workforce,” said Slawter. “It allows them to go back in with financial ease… they don’t also have to be faced with a big childcare bill. The money that they would have spent can be put towards diapers or wipes or anything else that they would need for their child.”
Slawter’s son has been in the daycare for about half a year. “Even from the time when my son entered daycare, the difference that I have seen, development wise, … I can really see how important how crucial it is for those initial years.”