Staff shortage temporarily closes daycare in Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T.

The temporary closure of the daycare in Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T., due to staffing shortages has left a mother scrambling for child care. 

A photo of a sign notifying the community of the closure was posted earlier this week to Facebook with the community government logo on it. CBC News reached out to Tsiigehtchic's administration about the closure, but didn't receive a response by deadline. 

Dinah Blake, a Tsiigehtchic resident and recreation employee who works afternoons and evenings, says her one-and-a-half-year-old son loves daycare. 

"He wants to go everyday," she said. 

Blake says the daycare has been closing periodically for the past few weeks and she has had to make other arrangements. Her father was watching her son for a few weeks and now her mother is, which involves sacrificing her own schedule. 

"That takes her away from doing her own thing at her own house," Blake said. 

Blake said child care is difficult in remote communities. She works evenings when there are no services available and often has to rely on friends and family. 

"There's only like a handful of kids that go to daycare — but it is a big help," Blake said.

Patricia Davison, chair of the N.W.T. Early Childhood Association, says staffing child-care centres is difficult across the territory, for a variety of reasons. 

"The wages often don't match what you make if you're at other jobs — and sometimes very comparable jobs," she said.

"Often with the same credentials you could walk across the street to the school and work in their junior kindergarten programs and support programs and make more money than you can working in early childhood." 

Shelley Kapraelian is a director of early learning and child care system transformation at the N.W.T. department of Education, Culture and Employment. 

Kapraelian says the department is trying address staff shortages in child care in a variety of ways, one of which includes the retention incentive funding program. This is $4.6 million in funding provided between 2022-23 to enhances wages for early childhood educators at licensed centre-based programs. 

Martha Friendly, the executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, a policy think tank in Toronto, says staffing challenges are a nation-wide issue, and rural and remote communities often have it worst.