Across the province, there is a call to action in support of over 4000 Early Childhood Educators working in Early Learning Centers and homes. It is bringing together key stakeholders that are vested in childcare including ECE’s, private and nonprofit operators, directors, post-secondary, families etc.

Wee College is supporting this awareness campaign and below is the open letter being sent to families across the province.

Dear Families,

The educators responsible for the care and early learning of your children need your help. Before we say how, we’d like to discuss why.

As a parent of a child in an early learning facility, you are a key stakeholder, and a vital participant, in the childcare sector. You have an invested interest in all decisions made that affect the services that is provided to your child.

In 2017, when Prime Minister Trudeau, and then Premier Brian Gallant, announced a $71 million dollar investment, over three years, on Early Learning and Child Care in New Brunswick, we celebrated together as families, educators, and owners. This initiative was to provide quality, affordable and accessible childcare to families through the creation of more spaces, lower fees, higher standards, and greater inclusion policies and resources.

In order to benefit from the above-mentioned, childcare facilities across the province were required to sign contracts with the provincial government to become “Designated Facilities”.

Through the process of becoming a designated facility, and in order to maintain that status, facilities engaged in contractual obligations regarding their programming, learning environments, staff professional development, inclusion policies and protocols, and fees charged to families.

These obligations are met through, to mention a few, yearly inspections geared at rating quality of care and space; yearly written plans indicating how designation funding will be utilised to improve quality of care and space; each educator must participate in a minimum of 30 hours of professional development per 3 years of employment, which is to be done on their own time and at their own cost; and, the creation of documentation highlighting an improved inclusion policy, as well as steps taken regularly to promote inclusivity in our centers.

This past August, 2021, the government, both federal and provincial, signed a $57.3 million dollar deal, extending the designation agreement for another 4 years. Unfortunately, we cannot provide families with the logistics on where the money has been spent, as the government has not provided the public access to the audit that was conducted on the federal funding.

This is not to be confused with the federal – provincial agreement for $10-per-day childcare. The New Brunswick-federal agreement remains in the negotiation stage at this time.

While it appears on the outside that the landscape of early learning is bright, profitable and without concern, it is far from being the case. Our sector is in a dangerous position, not far from collapse in many ways.

Causing the most harm to our sector is our struggle to recruit, train, and maintain quality educators in our centers, as many have been leaving our sector for the public school system. The migration from the child care setting to the school system, from ECE to EA, has been ongoing for many years, and continues to be swift and significant.

The recent strike by CUPE has made it clearer than ever before that our Early Childhood Educators (ECE’s) are being severely underpaid and undervalued by the New Brunswick government. Comparing what our ECE’s are earning with a similar position, such as an Educational Assistant (EA), of which both positions are receiving government funding, the compensation discrepancy is clear.

Those occupying a position as an Educational Assistant (EA), working in the public school system, earn, on average, $28.00/hour; while those occupying a position as an Early Childhood Educator (ECE), working in both private and/or public childcare settings, are earning, on average, between $14.90 – $19.00/hour.

The compensation discrepancy between the two positions is a prime example as to why our sector is struggling with recruiting, training, and retaining quality educators.

While funding is being provided to our centers to improve quality of care and space, none of it will matter if we are unable to retain quality staff. Our educators deserve to earn a livable wage, that is comparable to similar positions also receiving government funding.

This additional funding to educator wages must come from our government due to our centers not being able to raise our fees, as the designation program, run by our government, controls how much we are able to charge for child care. Owners of childcare settings also recognize that families simply cannot pay more for childcare.

This sector is in crisis for finding qualified educators and inclusion assistants. To date, government investments in our sector have not alleviated migration from the industry or increased quality in any measurable way. It’s unfortunate, but true.

Significantly higher wages are urgently needed to not only help us in retaining quality staff, but also to attract interest, and enrollment, in the Early Learning and Child Care field of work.

There is no time like the present, where federal dollars are available, to invest significantly into this essential workforce to address educator retention and wage inadequacy.

The government has an opportunity to spend the funding where it can be most impactful; on the educator’s wages. We do NOT need to create further education programs. We do NOT need another “task group”. We do NOT need another survey. We do NOT need more government administrative positions. We NEED qualified educators! Place the funding directly in the pockets of educators and they will come back to the early learning profession and stay!

The goal of early learning centers and homes, across our province, is to provide your children with quality care, provided by quality educators. We, operators, educators, and other stakeholders, are lobbying the government to move in this direction; but we need the biggest stakeholders to make our voices louder.

We need families, like yours, to speak up on behalf of their educators!

How can you help?

STEP 1 – Copy the message below, and send it to your MLA and the Premier:

As a parent of a child in an early learning facility/early learning home, I directly see the negative impact on this sector when our qualified educators leave the ELCC field. Unfortunately, the reality is that the ELCC sector is losing their ECE trained educators, regularly, due to lack of recognition through their wages.

This has significant impact on centers, across the province, in the following ways:

• High staff turnover
• A significant reduction in the number of trained educators in our centers
• Difficulty recruiting ECE trained educators
• Difficulty in meeting licensing requirements for 50% ECE trained educators
• Difficulty in recruiting inclusion support workers for children with additional needs
• Difficulty in justifying the various daily demands placed upon our educators by our sector, as pay does not match required work

I agree and support the industry’s call to action to increase educator wages immediately.

I ask that the government allocate additional funding directly to the educators through the provincial Wage Subsidy Program (WSP).

STEP TWO – Add your name to the petition requesting funding for higher wages for our Early Childhood Educators across the province, at http://supportece.ca

STEP THREE – Provide us with your support, as we take a more public stand to voice our concerns.

With your support, we can make a difference in our Early Learning and Child Care sector! We are an essential workforce, and your support is greatly appreciated by each member of our sector!

THANK YOU