Last week the government of Saskatchewan announced the creation of an online portal called Parent Central to help parents or caregivers find and access licensed child care, information, programming, or services for children from the ages of zero to six.

Parent Central is available at parentcentral.sk.211.ca and was developed in partnership between the Ministry of Education and 211 Saskatchewan, an initiative of United Way.

The portal allows parents to search for early learning and child care services by location and provides specific information about the availability of licensed child care across the province. United Way will coordinate with the centers to update the site on a regular basis with the most recent information on operation and availability.

Funding for Parent Central was provided by the Government of Saskatchewan through the Canada-Saskatchewan Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

As part of the 2021-22 Budget, the Government of Saskatchewan has allocated $75.5 million for child care, an increase of $2.0 million in provincial funding.

The additional funding will increase grants for both new and existing home child care providers. The province is also working to grow the number of available child care spaces in the province. The 2021-22 Budget provides funding to create 176 new licensed home-based spaces and 51 new licensed center spaces, as part of the province's four-year commitment to creating 750 new licensed child care spaces.