Carol Baldwin,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
The Conseil des Écoles Fransaskoises (CÉF) has announced it will start charging rent to Fransaskois early childhood education centres. Advocates say this decision could bankrupt some of those centres. The CÉF, funded by the Ministry of Education, is the only Francophone school division in Saskatchewan that offers a comprehensive education from preschool to grade 12 in French as a first language. There are ten not-for-profit early childhood centres in Saskatchewan CÉF schools, of which Le centre éducatif les petits pois in Bellevue is one. A petition calling for the retraction of the $4 per square foot rental fee was posted at the centre for people to sign. The petition stated that as a non-profit organization, the imposition of a rental fee would curtail the reinvestment in programming for the children and the maintenance of the premises and hinder them from retaining their current qualified employees. Le centre éducatif les petits pois is limited to a 2.5 percent increase in childcare fees every two years through the Canada-Saskatchewan Bilateral Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. The petition further notes that the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education already funds school boards for early childhood centres located in their facilities.
Taken from the Saskatchewan Government 2024-25 Funding Distribution Model – Funding Manual Page 31, “The plant operations and maintenance component allocates funding to boards of education for conducting the plant operations and maintenance activities of their schools. The funding addresses the building operating costs for the centralized instructional facilities of the school division. …The funded space calculation takes into consideration the amount of space in each school occupied by Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) centres.”
In the CÉF’s words in the notice given to the centres, the rental charges are ‘to account for their current budget needs’ yet the 2023-24 budget presented to the government in September of last year indicated there should have been a surplus of $8.2 million. This year’s provincial budget included an overall 8.8 percent increase in funding to school divisions, with CÉF receiving a reported 11 percent increase.
The decision to charge early childcare centres rental fees appears to counter the philosophy behind the 2016 Strategic Plan the CÉF implemented. Following consultations with community stakeholders, parents, students and staff, the new five-year plan updated its vision, mission, and values while also highlighting nine challenges that it planned to address with three major strategic directions and an operational plan for each of the expected outcomes, one of those nine challenges was the availability of early childcare services. That strategic direction was:
“Préparer les élèves à la réussite éducative en français, notamment en littératie et en numératie, selon différents cheminements proposés par le CÉF ainsi que par l’intégration des services de la petite enfance à une francisation plus efficace.” (https://ecolefrancophone.com/en/school-board/relevant-documentation/strategic-plan)
“Prepare students for educational success in French, particularly in literacy and numeracy, according to different pathways offered by the CÉF as well as through the integration of early childhood services into more effective francization.” (emphasis added)
‘Francization’ means the expansion of French language use to more social groups who had not used the language as a common means of expression in daily life previously. Simply put, this means learning French well enough to integrate successfully into French-speaking culture. To expand French language use, the CÉF identified the importance of young children beginning to learn the language before they entered the school system and enlisting early childhood educational centres to do that. From the operational plan, Préparer les élèves à la réussite éducative en français: (PDF: CÉF-ps-affiche-axe1)
· Les services de petite enfance sont intégrés pour une meilleure francisation et rétention des élèves.
· S’approprier le contenu de l’étude des centres éducatifs à la petite enfance
· Compléter, au besoin, l’état des lieux avec des données statistiques
· Prioriser des recommandations de l’étude sur le partenariat entre le CÉF et les centres éducatifs pour la petite enfance
· Maintenir le dialogue avec les responsables des centres éducatifs à la petite enfance
· Élaborer un plan d’action et le mettre en œuvre
· Analyser le taux de fidélisation et identifier des mesures d’amélioration au besoin
· Analyser les impacts de la fréquentation des services éducatifs à la petite enfance sur la francisation de l’élève
· Revisiter le partenariat avec l’APF au sujet de la petite enfance.”
(Translation) Preparing students for educational success in French:
· Early childhood services are integrated for better francization and retention of students.
· Take ownership of the content of the study of early childhood educational centers
· Supplement, if necessary, the inventory with statistical data
· Prioritize recommendations from the study on the partnership between the CÉF and educational centers for early childhood
· Maintain dialogue with those responsible for early childhood educational centers
· Develop an action plan and implement it
· Analyze the retention rate and identify improvement measures if necessary
· Analyze the impacts of attendance at early childhood educational services on student francization
· Revisiting the partnership with the APF regarding early childhood
The pushback is coming from all corners of the province. A coalition of Fransaskois early child-care centres in CÉF schools foresees this new expense leading to the closure and potential loss of hundreds of child-care spaces in the province. “Some of our daycares have indicated that they could go bankrupt within the next two to three years, and that means [fewer] daycare spots across the province, and those are already very scarce,” said Julie Pedneault, spokesperson for the coalition.
The coalition sent a letter to Minister of Education, Jeremy Cockrill, asking the Ministry to mediate. The letter to the ministry stated the CÉF failed to consult with the Fransaskois early childhood education centre boards and administrators, parents, or the larger Fransaskois community. The coalition claims that after the decision was announced in June, the centres, school councils and parent associations made many requests to delay the fees until proper consultation was held but the requests were denied or ignored.
In a written statement to Radio-Canada, the Ministry of Education stated the CÉF determines priorities in the use of its funds, and funding “for plant operations and maintenance is also included in the operating funding provided and includes space occupied by child-care centres.”
Early Learning and Childcare fall under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education, Early Years Branch. When the Saskatchewan government signed the four-year, $68.5-million extension of the Canada-Saskatchewan Bilateral Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, they indicated one of the target areas was to be Francophone early learning and childcare.
Le centre éducatif les petits pois director, Corinne Linfitt gave a straightforward response to how it would affect the centre, “We can’t afford it. To keep staff, we had to raise our wages over the average. With no grocery store in the village, we have to drive to Wakaw or Prince Albert to get our groceries and even with preplanning and other measures that bill has nearly doubled. We can’t bring more kids in – we don’t have the space [as defined in The Child Care Regulations, 2015] and we’d still need to hire more educators anyways.”
Frustration and concern are two emotions parents say they are experiencing. One parent shared that when they were looking for local daycare, each one they contacted had a year to two-year waitlist, and then they were told of the one in Bellevue. Daycare is hard enough to find in Saskatchewan but in rural areas “it is brutal” they shared, and it’s not getting better. They and other parents, they said, are holding their breath and hoping against hope that the doors don’t close.
