Auditor warns Sask. may not meet target for child-care spaces, recommends GTH changes after Costco dispute

Saskatchewan·UpdatedSaskatchewan’s provincial auditor Tara Clemett released the second volume of her 2025 Report on Tuesday. Clemett’s team analyzed the delivery of child-care spaces, inspections of special care homes and the Global Transportation Hub.Auditor finds Ministry of Education needs better data trackingAlexander Quon · CBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2025 12:07 PM EST | Last Updated: 7 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Saskatchewan provincial auditor Tara Clemett speaks with media about the second volume of her 2025 report. Clemett tabled the report on Tuesday. (Adam Bent/CBC)Saskatchewan’s plans to expand child care availability have come under scrutiny from the province’s auditor general.Tara Clemett tabled the second volume of her 2025 report on Tuesday.One of her key recommendations is that the province should develop an ongoing, sustainable funding model for licensed child care.Without adequate and reliable funding, service providers may change the quality of care, lay off staff or close up shop, the report says.Clemett alluded to the province’s announcement last month that it had extended the child-care agreement with Ottawa for another five years, to 2031.”So in the event there isn’t federal funding beyond 2031 from the child-care sector, you know, perspective, they need to figure out how do we maintain and sustain this model going forward,” Clemett said.Clemett’s audit of the province’s Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement deal with the federal government also found the province is at risk of not meeting its targets.Her team noted that the province has done a lot of work to increase the number of spaces from a baseline of 17,665 when the agreement was first signed in 2021.The agreement specifies that by March 31, 2026, Saskatchewan should have 46,000 total licensed child-care spaces. That works out to a child-care coverage rate of about 59 per cent.According to the audit, the province was reporting 41,163 spaces, or 49 per cent coverage, as of March 2025. However, 7,635 of those spaces were still under development and not all of them may materialize, the audit found.WATCH | Why child care was an election issue in Sask.:Sask. women say affordable child care is their top election issueSome women in Saskatchewan say $10-a-day child care is their most pressing election issue. Clemett’s team also recommended the Ministry of Education use better data tracking and analysis to guide how it builds out the number of spaces.The report says there has been no consultation with post-secondary institutions to ensure there are enough students enrolled in early childhood education programs.”If they’re gonna get more money in the next five years and they wanna create more spaces, you gotta make sure that you have the qualified staff to also be there,” Clemett said.The Saskatchewan NDP echoed that comment.Joanne Pratchler, NDP’s child care critic, said the Ministry of Education is failing to do the basics.”It seems a pretty obvious thing to do. We need X amount in the field. They have to come from somewhere,” she said.The audit also says the province does not track the number of approved child-care spaces that are actually being used, finding 694 spaces were being underutilized.That suggests that spaces “may be approved in areas with low demand or insufficient qualified educators available,” the audit notes.Those issues will need to be fixed if the Ministry of Education wants to develop a more comprehensive and accessible program in the province, it says.Saskatchewan provincial auditor Tara Clemett tabled the second volume of her 2025 report on Tuesday. (Alexander Quon/CBC)In a statement, the Ministry of Education said it appreciates the review by the auditor and is pleased with the audit’s findings. “We are committed to implementing these recommendations and improving access to child care for Saskatchewan families,” the statement read.GTH policyThe auditor also analyzed the Global Transportation Hub Authority (GTHA), a Crown corporation responsible for managing the Global Transportation Hub, a inland port operating west of Regina. Clemett’s team found the GTHA has effective rules and procedures to safeguard public resources, but does not have “well-defined collaboration procedures for major developments.”Instituting procedures would provide a consistent consultation process, the auditor said.”So that going forward, in the event that there is these surrounding municipalities that may be impacted by developments at the Hub, that they have a very outlined, rigorous transparent process,” Clemett said.One of the examples used by the auditor is the recent Costco dispute between the City of Regina and the GTHA.In 2024, the GTHA began negotiating with Costco about construction of a retail space at the Global Transportation Hub. The audit found that although the GTHA had the legislative authority to sell land at the hub to Costco, formal negotiation processes were not clearly defined.What goes unsaid in the audit is that the City of Regina was negotiating and approving plans for the construction of a Costco in the city’s Westerra neighbourhood at the same time.Regina ultimately paid $6.8 million in incentives to Costco to stop the development from being built at the GTH. Daniel Hersche, CEO and president of the GTHA, told CBC News in an interview Tuesday that he welcomes the auditor’s recommendation. “I don’t think it’s going to be a revelation that better collaboration is needed between the GTH and the City of Regina,” Hersche said.Hersche said the dispute over the Costco was unfortunate and that work to improve the relationship is already underway.The GTH and senior leadership from the City of Regina now have a regular standing meeting, and Hersche said the relationship is “better than it’s ever been.”Hersche said he plans to bring up the auditor’s recommendation at the next standing meeting he has with the city.ABOUT THE AUTHORAlexander Quon is the provincial affairs reporter for CBC Saskatchewan. He has been a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan since 2021 and is happy to be working in his hometown of Regina after half a decade in Atlantic Canada. He has previously worked with the CBC News investigative unit in Nova Scotia and Global News in Halifax. Alexander specializes in freedom of information requests and data reporting. He can be reached at: alexander.quon@cbc.ca. FacebookTwitter