Province changing timing of Alberta’s child-care funding
Posted Feb 24, 2024 11:25 am.
Last Updated Feb 24, 2024 11:26 am.
Financial relief is coming to Alberta childcare operators as the province announces a switch to the funding format.
About 80 per cent of childcare funding will be sent to providers at the beginning of March, rather than the previous model of child-care centres carrying the overhead, with the province reimbursing the costs later on, according to a memo to daycare providers acquired by CityNews on Friday.
In a statement, the province confirmed the change, saying “This will ensure Alberta’s child-care system is sustainable and continues to remain affordable for families. We will have more information to announce in the coming weeks.”
This also comes as Premier Danielle Smith announced that Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade Matt Jones, the previous children’s services minister in 2022, will oversee the new daycare deal. Minister of Children and Family Services Searle Turton was at the helm until the change.
Watch: Alberta Premier makes changes following complaints from daycare operators
Krystal Churcher, chair of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, calls it a victory on the path to ten-dollar-a-day child care, but she worries it’s still going to be an uphill journey.
“I think the path has never been clear with this program, unfortunately,” she told CityNews.
“It’s not very transparent other than the national intention is to create a non-profit public standardized child-care system across Canada. What that looks like in each province is different.”
She feels no province has put forward a successful plan, but believes Alberta has the opportunity to take the lead.
“I think we saw a federal campaign promise that sounded great, and 10 dollar childcare for all of Canada sounds amazing, but I don’t know where that number came from, I don’t think it was a well-researched number, and I don’t believe that 10 dollars will buy you much,” Churcher said.
She says it’s a tumultuous time that is highlighting issues in the childcare sector, something she says is expected when a public nationwide system is being created, but she adds 70 per cent of the province’s childcare is delivered by private operators.
“When you’re coming into a province where the majority stakeholder of childcare is in that private space, it makes it very difficult for the childcare model in place to just kinda roll forward in that program. I mean, there was no place for us.”
