Daycares face deadline to join provincial system

Daycares on P.E.I. have until July 1 to decide if the subsidies the province is offering make joining a new regulated system worthwhile.

'We knew we couldn't stand alone anymore.' Joe MacAulay, daycare operator

Last week the government announced it was increasing funding for early childhood education by 63 per cent, but in order to take full advantage of that money daycares would have to accept a provincial curriculum and a regulated fee structure.

The daycare industry is facing a crisis with kindergarten moving into the school system. Joe MacAulay, who chairs one of the two non-profit daycares in the Morell-St Peters area is not only losing children to kindergarten next year but also half of his staff, who will be moving to the schools to teach them.

MacAulay is ready to go with the province's offer.

"At the end of the day, we knew we couldn't stand alone anymore," he said.

"They've really put something on the table we can probably work with."

There will still be changes. The area's two daycares are amalgamating into one. That will allow them to meet the minimum enrolment for the provincially regulated program.

"We have everything pretty well everything ready to go but location, and now we're just working on that," said MacAulay.

Not all daycares have decided if they are willing to make the necessary changes to meet the goverment requirements.Amanda Burke, operator of Little Squirts in Souris, said there are lot of changes and she wants more specifics from the province.

Burke and other operators will be meeting with the province on Tuesday to discuss the changes.