P.E.I. to regulate daycare costs

P.E.I. will increase spending in the early childhood sector by 63 per cent,but daycares will have to accept more regulationto access that money, it was announced Friday.

The increased spending and regulation was revealed at a news conference at the Parkdale Sherwood Headstart daycare in Charlottetown.

Annual funding for childhood development from birth to school age will increase from $5.35 million to $8.7 million a year.

The goal of the Early Years Centres and Infant Care Centres is to change daycares from babysitting operations to learning facilities, said Premier Robert Ghiz.

"This system is being built with one goal in mind: that as a province, we can do a great deal more to prepare young Islanders for a lifetime of learning," he said.

"The preschool excellence initiative will achieve that goal by helping to build an accessible, sustainable and quality-driven system, while recognizing the importance of parental choice."

'Those centres will be targeted in areas where access is an issue today.' Doug Currie

Private daycares can get more government money, but will have to follow rules set up by the Education Department.

The centres will follow a provincial curriculum and have regulated costs. Businesses will still be able to operate outsidethe provincial system, but they will not have the same access to provincial funding.

There will be better wages for teachers, all of whom will have to be licensed.

Government money will be available for wage subsidies as well as training and professional development.

Doug Currie, theminister responsible for early childhood development,said the centres will be strategically located across the province.

"Those centres will be targeted in areas where access today is an issue. So if you're living in rural Prince Edward Island and right now you don't have access to a facility, starting in September, you will have that access," Currie said.

Currie said 20 centres will be set upbyautumn. Parents across the province will pay the same for their children's care, as long as it's in an Early Years Centre.

Ghiz said that will mean 60 per cent of parents will be paying the same or less than they are now.

The others will pay more, but government is capping increases at a dollar a day.