Changing immigration policies are compounding N.L. early childhood education crisis

Frequent changes to Canada’s immigration policies are hindering efforts to address the shortage of early childhood educators (ECEs) and causing confusion among foreign educators looking to work in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to a Memorial University researcher.

Yolande Pottie-Sherman, an associate professor of geography who is researching the role of immigration in Newfoundland and Labrador’s early learning and childcare system, says international students studying childhood education in the province feel “uncertain” about their job prospects in Canada due to changing federal policies. 

In the past year alone, Ottawa has announced changes to several immigration programs, including issuing fewer student visas, tightening restrictions on post-graduation and cutting the number of temporary foreign workers Canada accepts, which is “introducing chaos in the system [and] sending the message that Canada is not an open place, Canada doesn’t want you,” says Pottie-Sherman.

The confusion also comes from Ottawa announcing immigration changes, then partially reversing those policies within weeks. Pottie-Sherman says when the government tightened post-graduate work permit rules in 2024, early childhood educators were excluded, despite Canada’s severe shortage in that field. Shortly after, the government updated its list of programs offering post-study work visas to include childhood educators.

Pottie-Sherman says these changes make it difficult for international students to plan their post-secondary education, for universities to anticipate enrollment numbers, and for understaffed employers to anticipate changes in the labour force. 

Province approved 1,000 extra spaces

On Jan. 31, N.L. Immigration Minister Sarah Stoodley announced Ottawa had partially reversed its decision to reduce Newfoundland and Labrador’s economic immigrant allotment. The federal government increased the province’s 2025 numbers by 1,000 spaces under the condition that N.L. agrees to accept an additional 100 asylum seekers. The province had originally agreed to welcome 190 humanitarian migrants over the next two years and will now welcome 290.

Newfoundland and Labrador was originally allocated 1,525 seats for this year, and the revised allotment of 2,525 still falls short of the 3,050 spaces the province was originally approved for in 2024. “It isn’t where we wanted to be,” Stoodley told the press, but added it’s better than Ottawa’s previous 50 per cent cut.  

Stoodley said the province will need to change its intake policies to maximize immigration spaces. “As of today, we’re going to be pausing our system where the employers and businesses and individuals put in a nomination,” she said on Jan. 31, explaining the government will prioritize healthcare workers, early childhood educators, and construction workers.

Newfoundland and Labrador will also need to access federal immigration pathway programs to sustain population growth, a strategy Stoodley says the province has never had to rely on before.

Early Childhood Education shortage a ‘workforce crisis’

Last year’s The Childcare Crisis is a Workforce Crisis report outlines the results of a survey commissioned by the Jimmy Pratt Foundation and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour in collaboration with the Workers’ Action Network and local childcare researchers. More than 500 ECEs from across the province were surveyed in November 2023 to gather views on wages, benefits, and working conditions.

The report concluded that the province will need at least 1,000 new ECEs by 2026 to address the shortage.

Pottie-Sherman says the provincial government must solve the early childhood educator shortage from “within” the province. “Just adding immigrants is not going to solve our workforce crisis, but we need to retain them in the jobs as well as retain them in the province,” she says.

A 2023 study on the retention of early learning and child care workers in Canada suggests that immigrant ECEs are just as likely to leave the field as Canadian-born educators. 

Early childhood educators work with children during their most critical brain development stages, says Patrice Gordon, an ECE and steering committee member of Child Care Now, a non profit focusing on advocating for a publicly funded child care system. “They’re building their social skills. They’re building their problem-solving skills. They’re building cognitive skills.”

Pottie-Sherman says ECEs are “the bedrock” for parents of young children, especially women, to reenter the workforce. “The doctors, nurses and lawyers — if someone is not looking after their children, they cannot go to work,” says Gordon.

Wages, benefits and pension 

According to The Childcare Crisis is a Workforce Crisis report, 62 per cent of ECE respondents said they will have to leave the profession in order to find a job with benefits, and 42 per cent said they are considering leaving the field because of the low pay. 

In 2023 the province implemented a wage grid for ECEs based on their training and years of service, but the 2024 report found that 56 per cent of respondents were disappointed with the new wage scheme, which features a starting hourly wage of $25 for newly graduated childhood educators.

Gordon says ECEs in the province are tired and don’t feel valued. “We’re cleaning all day, and we’re looking after children that are sick.” ECEs are not guaranteed paid sick days or paid vacation either. “When we get sick, we have to think, do I stay home being sick, or do I go to work with my sickness and struggle through the day? And the answer is, always, I go to work and struggle through the day. Because if I don’t go to work, I don’t get paid.”

Eighty-three per cent of early childhood educators who participated in November 2023 survey reported that they do not have a pension plan, and 90 per cent said they have no idea how they will retire. Gordon says many older educators just continue working, hoping the government will introduce a pension plan soon, similar to those announced in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia in 2023.

In 2023, the province introduced a medical and dental plan for childhood educators, but Gordon says the government has not been “responsive” enough. “It just takes much longer than it should take for these things to be done.”

Supporting educators

The province needs to ensure designated immigration pathways for international students studying at the College of the North Atlantic, says Pottie-Sherman, similar to Nova Scotia’s pathway programs for early childhood educators.

The uncertainty international students face from changing regulations weakens their resolve and reduces their willingness to stay and work in the province, Pottie-Sherman adds, explaining international students bring valuable ideas and plans to early childhood education, and that it would be a “huge lost opportunity” if they ultimately left the field or the province.

Gordon, who moved from Jamaica to Canada to work as an ECE, says that international educators are often drawn to Newfoundland and Labrador by appealing job offers, only to be caught off guard by the working conditions. They’re asked to take on tasks they weren’t told about, such as cleaning washrooms. “A lot of people come, they study, and then they leave,” she says.

Gordon says educators are essential workers and deserve the same treatment and benefits as other professionals. “We work very hard all day and we deserve to be compensated. We deserve to have working conditions that are humane,” she says. “If we’re sick, we need to be able to give our bodies rest, and we can’t do that under the [current] conditions.”