Childcare Shortage Part 4

Right now in Haliburton County, 260 children are on a waitlist for childcare. Their parents struggle to find suitable childcare and often face a hodge-podge of caregivers that include grandparents, friends and neighbors while they wait for a licensed spot to open up at one of two centers here. In the fourth and final segment of our series on the childcare shortage, we speak with officials from the County of Haliburton and the City of Kawartha Lakes who say they are in lock-step, trying to expand childcare facilities here, but say the challenges are many. Firstly, a childcare center needs space and lots of it, it needs to recruit and retain staff with liveable incomes and in Haliburton County, it needs creative collaboration with businesses and other organizations to make childcare happen. For now, though, the wait list continues to grow with families waiting as long as four years for a spot.