Susan Holt, the Liberal leader, has voiced her concerns about a recently appointed surgeon and specialist in the Fredericton area who is unable to commence their duties due to unavailability of child care for their six-month-old child. This underlines a longstanding dilemma that fuses the dual crises of a child-care shortage and a dearth of physicians in the area.
Holt warned, grievously pointing towards the deleterious impact of this issue on the economy and the healthcare system. The continuous apprehensions over promised reductions in daycare fees by Ottawa, projected to bring daily costs to $10 by 2026, seem to linger resoundingly in the backdrop of this new concern.
Growing scarcity of child-care spaces has been reported to be at a crisis point, according to a recent report by the non-profit Childcare Resources and Research Unit. It dismally revealed the direness of the situation – For every need, there was only one spot in 29 potential child-care settings.
This pressing predicament has led the New Brunswick government to lay the blame at Ottawa’s doorstep, criticizing what they view as flaws in their current agreement with the federal government. The province’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, Bill Hogan, expressed his intent to amend certain details of the plan. However, feedback from Ottawa regarding the feasibility of these amendments remains forthcoming.
Hogan mused over the intricacies of the crisis, acknowledging that identifying true demand isn’t as straightforward as one might imagine. It required not just assertions of need, but concrete evidence of that need.
Accordingly, the province’s online child-care portal displays a grim picture, with a severe shortfall in available spaces, particularly for children under two years old. Hogan estimates that at least 3,000 families are currently seeking child-care spots province-wide.
Deeply aware of the pressing urgency, Holt urged the Higgs government to seize control of the situation, emphasizing how their intervention, and not hers, would be the key in prompting a response from the prime minister. The province’s crises, she insisted, needed immediate attention and resolution to enable important professionals, like this surgeon, to serve the community. Efforts to ensure that child care and essential health care services are not mutually exclusive must now take center stage.
