Local group worried over continued lack of child care spaces
Posted Jul 20, 2015 12:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
One organization is sounding the alarm about a shortage of child care spots in the province as the enhanced benefits from Ottawa are rolled out.
Public Interest Alberta maintains that the cheques will only have a marginal benefit for parents who are shelling out the big bucks or are on long wait lists.
Director of Communications Joel French tells 660News, while the Quarry Park Child Development Centre was announced last week in Calgary, with over 300 spots for kids, it’s a only a tiny dent in the real need.
“Even though it’s a very large centre, those new spaces don’t even come close to meeting the need that’s out there right now,” French said.
French says they’ve been pushing both the province to provide more incentives to open up spaces.
“Providing more support for training for staff to ensure that more staff are attracted to working in the child care system,” French said. “Because that can be a big problem too — is not being able to find the people to staff those spaces.”
“If the idea behind this is to address the child care shortage and to address the affordability of child care, this just isn’t the most effective way to go about it,” French explained.
He added that while the new enhanced benefits may make the fees slightly more affordable it would be more effective to put a cap on them altogether, with $15 dollars per day the ideal price.
