Auditor warns Sask. may not meet target for child-care spaces

SaskatchewanSaskatchewan’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: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 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 in Saskatchewan.Without adequate and reliable funding, service providers may change the quality of care, lay off staff or close up shop.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.That 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.Clemett’s team notes 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.Her team also recommended the Ministry of Education use better data tracking and analysis to guide how it builds out the number of spaces.WATCH | Why child care was a top election issue: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. The report says there has been no consultation with post-secondary institutions to ensure there are enough students enrolled in early childhood education programs.It also says the province does not track the number of approved child-care spaces that are actually being used.”We found 694 news spaces being underutilized, suggesting spaces may be approved in areas with low demand or insufficient qualified educators available,” the audit notes.Saskatchewan provincial auditor Tara Clemett tabled the second volume of her 2025 report on Tuesday. (Alexander Quon/CBC)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.Last month, the government announced it has extended the child-care agreement with Ottawa for another five years, to 2031.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.”It would also help minimize undesirable impacts on nearby municipalities for future major land developments at the Global Transportation Hub,” the reports reads.One of the examples used by the auditor is the recent 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 was ultimately forced to provide $6.8 million in incentives to Costco to avoid the Westerra project from being highjacked by the GTH.Well-defined procedures would “reduce the likelihood of the GTHA competing with developers in nearby municipalities for future major land developments,” the audit concludes.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