Alberta moving to flat, monthly childcare fee in aim to lower costs for parents
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Posted Jan 30, 2025 10:11 am.
Last Updated Jan 30, 2025 1:13 pm.
Alberta parents could be paying less for their kids to go to daycare beginning in the spring, after the province announced Thursday it is moving to a flat, monthly fee.
Starting April 1, parents with children zero to kindergarten-age attending full-time licensed day facilities and family day home programs will be eligible for a flat parent fee of $326.25 per month, or around $15 a day.
Parents who need part-time care for their kids will pay $230 per month.
Preschools will also be reimbursed up to $100 per month per child on parents’ behalf, up from $75.
This will replace the Child Care Subsidy Program for children zero to kindergarten-age attending child care during regular school hours. However, the subsidy for children who need care outside of school hours in grades 1-6 and attending full-time kindergarten isn’t changing.
The province says 85 per cent of licensed daycare providers will get a funding increase once the new fee structure takes effect on April 1. Funding will come from the $3.8 billion early learning and child-care agreement that Alberta has with the federal government.
A flat monthly fee will make it easier for families to plan for child-care expenses and also reduce price inconsistency and confusion, according to the provincial government.
Government estimates indicate a family using full-time daycare could save an average of $11,000 per year, per child, under this new program.
However, this pay transition means child-care providers will soon have the ability to offer “optional services” for an additional parent fee. Examples of optional add-ons could include transportation, field trips, and food, the province adds.
The government says these optional services must be over and above the services that are given to all children in individual child-care programs and clear requirements will be established to prevent preferential child-care access for families choosing to pay for optional services.
Grant to fund more high-quality, affordable child-care spaces
Alberta’s government and the Government of Canada said Thursday a joint investment of $53 million into a grant program over two years will encourage the creation of new child-care spaces.
The grant will provide non-profit and public child-care providers the capital to build, expand, upgrade and make repairs to their existing facilities, Alberta says, adding these improvements must support the creation of new child-care spaces.
Rural and remote communities with limited to no child-care options will be the top priority for funding.
Grants under the Building Blocks program will be divided into major and minor capital grants.
Major grants will be for projects that cost $500,000 or more and may include new construction of a child-care facility, building expansions, substantial upgrades, and the purchase, assembly, installation, and delivery of a modular building structures. Minor grants will be for projects that cost less than $500,000 and could include interior and exterior renovations, upgrades, repairs, refurbishment, or improvements without changes to the structure in a new or existing building.
Applications for the grant program opened Thursday.