FALL RIVER: The owners of Fall River Childcare Centre has announced they will be closing their doors next month.
Molly Young and Lindsay Awalt, once passionate for the job they do, said in a statement to The Laker News after two challenging years of battling against “the rising tide of disorganization and neglect in the Department of Education and Early Childhood” they have had enough.
The two said that passion has been ruined by the “complete and utter mess” that the province and the Department of Education and Early Childhood has created around childcare for families and many overworked and underpaid ECE’s who remain in the crumbling field.
FRCC is also just one of many private childcare centres closing their doors this year after the news of the Canada Wide Early Learning and Childcare Agreement has all but decimated privately owned childcare centres in NS.
Privately owned centres continue to struggle in an ECE staffing shortage, trying to recruit and retain qualified staff while the government continues to drag their feet on the ECE Wage Compensation package.
Young said in addition to having to mirror fees to 2016 economic information, centres have not been allowed to raise their fees to address astronomical inflation rates.
“All of this, and a constant struggle to maintain our mental health and keep our heads above water, has lead to the difficult decision to close the centre,” she said.
The owners sent their deepest and sincerest apologies to their current and future families in Fall River.
“We know you need childcare in your community,” said Young.
“We hope that the government will open their eyes and see that “creating new spaces” and introducing families of Nova Scotia to the CWELCCA has had the total opposite effect, and is pushing previously passionate and excited owners and ECE’s out of the field at an astronomical rate, closing centres and childcare spaces province-wide.”
The Laker News has reached out MLA Brian Wong and Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Becky Druhan for comment.
