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The Honourable Krista Lynn Howell, Minister of Education, today announced that the Child Care Demand Portal is now available as a tool to assess and understand the current demand for child care services in the province.
Families or caregivers seeking child care are asked to visit the portal and input information regarding their child care needs. The portal will collect information on the age range of the child, the type of care required and whether the child is currently on a wait list. This information will assist the department to better focus on where space creation is needed most and will guide plans for targeted space creation.
The portal also provides an avenue for parents to be able to submit information if they suspect a regulated or unregulated child care service is not adhering to the Child Care Act and regulations.
The Child Care Demand Portal is the first phase of an Early Learning Gateway, which will be a robust information management system for the Department of Education’s Early Learning and Child Care Division. The Department of Education has started work on the second phase of the approach, which will connect parents in need of child care with child care services that have available space. The department will hold virtual consultations with service providers, early childhood educators and the Minister’s Advisory Committee to help inform the development of this second phase.
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There are currently over 8,300 child care spaces operating at $10-a-day or less in the province, with government on track to achieve the creation of 1,000 new spaces in 2023.
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