How to Open a Daycare Centre in Saskatchewan

The short answer

Apply to the Ministry of Education first — approval depends on local need, not just on meeting the building rules. Regulated child care centres in Saskatchewan are licensed by the Ministry of Education under The Child Care Act, 2014 and The Child Care Regulations, 2015. Applications to develop new regulated child care spaces are accepted year-round, and approval focuses on areas with the greatest need.

This guide covers the centre model only, not a home daycare. It does not re-cover the Manitoba centre guide's mechanics — Saskatchewan's application, board, classification, and ratio rules are its own.

Step 1: Apply to start a regulated centre

Apply through the Government of Saskatchewan's Apply to Start a Regulated Child Care Centre page. Under the Canada-Saskatchewan Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement extension, Saskatchewan is adjusting how new child care spaces are approved. Applications continue to be accepted year-round, and approval of new centre spaces will focus on areas with the greatest need. Child care development decisions are guided by the Child Care Development Assessment and Approval Framework.

The ministry prioritizes applications from the not-for-profit sector. For-profit business corporations and individuals over the age of 18 may also apply, but centres operated as a for-profit business model are not eligible for government funding. Funding for the development of new regulated child care centre spaces is available from the Ministry of Education once a space is approved.

Step 2: Set up the board of directors

A regulated child care centre is operated by a board of directors which is either a board with a majority who are parent users, or a community board. The ministry publishes a Child Care Centre Board of Directors Guiding Document that sets out the board's responsibilities. Set the board up before the application is filed, because the application is assessed on the organization behind the centre, not only on the building.

Step 3: Staff to the classification rules

The centre director and supervisor must be at least 18 years of age and must meet or exceed the qualifications of an Early Childhood Educator III. All child care workers employed in the centre must be at least 16 years of age.

The classification levels, from the Child Care Licensee's Manual, are:

• ECE I — a 9-credit unit orientation to early childhood course through Saskatchewan Polytechnic, or 9 credit units of equivalent education or training.
• ECE II — a one-year early childhood certificate from a recognized college in Canada, or 39 credit units of equivalent education or training.
• ECE III — a two-year early childhood diploma from a recognized college in Canada, or 81 credit units of equivalent education or training.

Transcripts from post-secondary institutions in Canada or the United States must be sent directly by the institution to the Ministry of Education, Early Childhood Educator Certification.

Step 4: Run the rooms to the ratios

The staff-to-child ratios in The Child Care Regulations, 2015, section 52, are 1 to 3 for infants, 1 to 5 for toddlers, 1 to 10 for preschool children, and 1 to 15 for school-age children, for a group of children in a single age category indoors. For a group with more than one age category, the ratio is 1 to 15 equivalent children, where one infant counts as five children, one toddler as three, one preschool child as 1.5, and one school-age child as one.

At least two persons must be present at the centre at all times while children are in attendance, one of whom is a child care worker who meets the requirements of section 42 and the other an individual at least 16 years of age. A centre may provide services to children from six weeks up to and including 12 years of age, and to a maximum of 90 children.

Step 5: Clear the building, fire, and health checks

The centre must meet the building, fire, health, and municipal requirements for the address. In Saskatoon, for example, a building permit is required before the operation of any day care facility, and provincial licensing requires that building permit first. Check the zoning bylaw, the building permit, and the fire inspection requirements of the city where the centre will operate before signing a lease, and do not advertise as licensed until the provincial licence is issued.

What parents pay: $10 a day

Parents of children under six in regulated care pay $10 a day, or $217.50 a month when the child is enrolled 10 or more days in the month — the rest of your fee schedule is covered by the Parent Fee Reduction Grant, which the Ministry of Education pays directly to the centre. The centre sets its own full-time monthly and daily fee schedules, but for new centres the ministry caps them: in Regina, Saskatoon, within about 25 kilometres of their downtown cores, and in the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District, the maximum full-time monthly schedule is $1,118 for an infant space, $885 for a toddler space, and $828 for a preschool space; elsewhere in the province the caps are $832, $738.15, and $672.25. There is no cap on school-age spaces, which are not eligible for the grant. The Canada–Saskatchewan agreement behind the $10-a-day fee was extended for five years to March 31, 2031, and since April 1, 2026 it also covers kindergarten children who turn six on or after that date, until the end of that school year in June or when they turn seven, whichever comes first. Standard care is a ten-hour day; you may charge for hours beyond ten, within the ministry's caps, and any extra charge must be in the Child Care Services Agreement with the parent.

What the opened pages do not state

The opened Saskatchewan pages do not publish a licence application fee or a processing time for a centre application, so this guide states neither. The ministry's centre page also does not publish the current grant amounts for developing a centre, so this guide states no grant figure — check the Grants for Child Care Centres page for the current amounts before budgeting.

Related guides:

• How to Open a Daycare Centre in Manitoba — Manitoba's centre licence route, a different application and ratio set from Saskatchewan's.
• How to Open a Daycare Centre in Alberta — Alberta's centre licence route, for comparison with Saskatchewan's.
• How to Open a Daycare Centre in Ontario — Ontario's centre licence route, for comparison with Saskatchewan's.
• How to Become an Early Childhood Educator in Saskatchewan — the Saskatchewan ECE certification route this guide's staffing rules rely on.
• How to Start a Daycare in Canada — the national daycare overview, including the home-daycare model this guide does not cover.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Saskatoon — Saskatoon business licence and permit mechanics, for a centre operator dealing with the same city offices.

Sources

• Government of Saskatchewan, Apply to Start a Regulated Child Care Centre — year-round applications, approval focused on areas of greatest need, the board models, the six-week to 12-year age range, the 90-child maximum, and the for-profit funding rule.
• Government of Saskatchewan, Child Care Licensee's Manual — the ECE I, II, and III classification requirements, the director and supervisor rule, and the section 52 staff-to-child ratios.
• Government of Saskatchewan, Child Care Licensee's Manual — Appendix 17.1, Fee Limits — Centres — the $10-a-day / $217.50-a-month parent fee, the Parent Fee Reduction Grant, the fee-schedule caps for new centres, the five-year agreement extension to March 31, 2031, and the kindergarten extension.
• City of Saskatoon, Day Cares — no city business licence for a daycare in Saskatoon, a building permit required, and the provincial licence from the Ministry of Education.