Canadian provinces are short of daycare centers
That's why parents choose a nanny.
Canadian cities do not have enough daycare centers. They used to be too expensive for most parents. Then the Canadian government met them halfway and created a publicly funded system of early childhood education centers. But there was a problem, too: not enough buildings or teachers.
Across Canada, 44% of preschoolers do not have access to daycare. The worst situation is in Saskatchewan. There, the figure is as high as 92%. A daycare center director from a small town in that province says there is a waiting list of 1,925 children in her town. She calls it a disaster — even if 10 more such centers open in the city, they won't be able to accommodate all the preschoolers.
Saskatchewan has achieved the goal set by the federal government — it now costs CAD 10 to spend a day at daycare. But they are too few — you can't even allocate a place for half of the applicants. There are at least 3 applicants for every available spot.
This puts a terrible strain on the parents. They either have to take unpaid parental leave until the child is old enough to attend kindergarten. Or they have to hire a nanny. Either way, they lose money.
For now, the federal and regional authorities are thinking about how to solve this problem as well. But for now, this demand for care of young children is in the hands of immigrants who want to work as nannies and caregivers. Read about how to move there as a nanny in our article.
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