Alberta parents will see their child-care fees reduced drastically in the upcoming years thanks to a new child-care deal inked between the federal and provincial governments.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced they would be bringing the average cost of child care in the province down to $10 a day by the end of 2026 for kids from newborn those who attend kindergarten.
"This is big news for families, and it's yet another example of how governments work together to deliver in real, tangible ways for people," Trudeau said.
In the meantime, Alberta parents will see a 50-per-cent reduction in average parent fees for kids under the age of six in regulated child-care spaces by the end of 2022, before dropping again in 2026.
The deal inked between Ottawa and Alberta will cost $3.8 billion of entirely federal funding.
Kenney said the new deal will result in more jobs in the province and better access to child care.
“All types of licensed child care for kids aged up to kindergarten, like preschools, daycare, and licensed family day homes, will now be supported through this deal with the federal government,” Kenney said.
“And to ensure that every child has the care that works for them, there’s funding for specific needs, such as linguistic, cultural, and special learning supports.”
Affordability of child care has long been a struggle for many parents and in 2020, St. Albert parent Stephanie Kirk said she had to quit her job as a manager for a financial company to care for her kids, as child care would have cost a monthly minimum of $800 to $1,200 per child for full-time care, and she would need child care for at least four of her six children. The cost calculated out to between $38,400 and $57,600 every year.
Parents told The Gazette the costs can be astronomical, and one mom said her family became so desperate they had to rely on unregulated care.
Others said they tried to rely on family and friends for care, but those circumstances weren’t a long-term solution for their child-care problems.
In Edmonton, child-care costs rank in the middle of the pack, according to a 2018 study tracking childcare costs (Child care fees in Canada’s big cities 2018 by Martha Friendly and David MacDonald at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives).
Edmonton's median monthly child-care costs come in at $975 for infants, $875 for toddlers, and $835 for preschool-aged kids, the report said.
Friendly, who has spent her career researching child care and is now the founder and executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit based out of Toronto, said Alberta is not an outlier in child-care fees. The fees are high because the province has so many for-profit child-care centres along with low child-to-staff ratios, which drive up costs. Friendly added much of the cost of child care goes to paying qualified staff a living wage, which eats up a good portion of the budget for child-care centres.
Trudeau and Kenney were joined by Children’s Services Minister Rebecca Schulz, who said the costs will be reduced in Alberta through grants given directly to operators and will include an expansion of the provincial subsidy system in the first two years for families with household incomes of up to $180,000 a year.
The new deal will bring in another 40,000 child-care spaces and drastically bring down the costs of child care in the province. The grants to businesses will also be used as incentives for daycare providers to create space in hard-to-find child care, such as in rural areas, infant care, and spots that cater to shift workers.
Parents who earn up to $119,999 annually will pay $10 per day for child care. For parents who earn between $120,000 and $179,000 annually, they will pay between $11 to $17 per day. For those who earn more than $180,000, they will pay $22.19 per day for child care.
Alberta is the ninth province to sign onto a child-care deal with Ottawa after the announcement of a national early child-care program in this year's federal budget. The plan aims to drop child-care costs for kids under the age of six down to an average of $10 per day by 2026.
