Federal Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development Karina Gould announces updates to an expansion of child care spaces in Alberta, January 31, 2023. (Photo: Government of Alberta)

By David Opinko

Private operators to also be included in Alberta child care expansion

Jan 31, 2023 | 1:26 PM

EDMONTON, AB – The Governments of Canada and Alberta have provided updates on a plan that will create tens of thousands of new child care spaces in the province.

Work is ongoing on the Alberta-Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement (ACELCC), and as part of it, the governments have announced the Cost Control Framework and For-Profit Expansion Plan.

Funding under the plan, totalling $3.8 billion, will allow for the creation of additional child care spaces as well as a reduction in fees for new and existing spaces.

By the end of March 2026, a total of 68,700 new spaces will become available in Alberta, which now includes 22,500 licensed private child-care spaces.

Previously, only non-profit spaces were eligible for funding.

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A media release from the governments states that as many as 1,600 private spaces will be available for funding “almost immediately.”

Alberta Minister of Children’s Services Mickey Amery says it is important to support the development of both public and private options for child care.

“We remain fully committed to supporting the development of a child care system that works best for Alberta families by providing parents with affordable, accessible, flexible and inclusive high-quality child care,” says Amery. “Including more private spaces in the child-care agreement is the next step in ensuring that parents have more child-care options and reducing parent fees to an average of $10 a day by 2026.”

Through the ACELCC agreement, the governments say the average cost of care for children aged zero to five has already been reduced by half.

Federal Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development Karina Gould says the goal is to get that down to an average of $10 per day by 2026.

“Today’s announcement highlights our commitment to on-the-ground child care providers in Alberta,” says Gould. “Our expansion plan will create spaces for parents and get children off waitlists while ensuring the reasonable use of tax dollars. We want more families with children in licensed spaces to be able to reap the benefits of more affordable child care.”

The governments say parents can expect to save between $450 and $635 per month for every child enrolled in full-time child care.

The Alberta government plans to continue to consult with child care operators in the coming months about how to implement the Cost Control Framework.

The Alberta NDP issued a response to the announcement, saying that the United Conservative Party (UCP) government has been dragging its feet on implementing the child care expansion.

Alberta NDP Critic for Children’s Service Rakhi Pancholi says, “From the day the federal child care deal was signed, the UCP’s implementation has been incompetent, confused and poorly communicated to child-care operators and educators. This has created uncertainty and delays in accessing affordable child care for parents that could have been avoided if the UCP was willing to do the work to make this successful.”

Pancholi adds that the UCP “has never demonstrated a real commitment to the principles of affordable, quality, accessible child care,” but claims that the NDP would.

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