By Matt Nemeth

Province announces $25-a-day child care pilot project

Apr 6, 2017 | 6:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The NDP government followed through with one of its key campaign platforms Thursday by announcing a $25-a-day child care pilot project spread across 22 centres.

Medicine Hat however will not be home to one of those 22 daycare programs.

Over the phone from Edmonton Thursday Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner said he’s had a couple of meetings with local operators, and they’ve told him there isn’t a strong need for $25-dollar-a-day child care here at the moment.

“From what I’ve learned from the operators themselves is that there was some vacancies in Medicine Hat, and therefore there was limited need and demand for that in our community at this particular time,” said the speaker of the house. “Depending on what the program does and learns from the pilot project there may be an opportunity if demand increases.”

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Medicine Hat & District Child Care Coordinator Jennifer Usher echoed Wanner’s comment Thursday by saying it wouldn’t really be necessary to have one of the pilot programs in Medicine Hat.

“We’ve had a couple of centres open up recently in Medicine Hat, and we have lots of spaces right now so it would really be detrimental to the rest of our operators,” she said after the announcement.

Usher says her association has around 60 programs in the city and surrounding area under their umbrella adding on average it costs $700/month for a preschool aged child to receive care here — which works itself out to be around $35-a-day. A $25-dollar-a-day program therefore would save parents around $200/month.

At a press conference unveiling the pilot project Thursday Premier Notley said the program will cost just under $10 million and create around 1,300 daycare spots.

Anyone, regardless of income, can apply for the $25-a-day child care slots and it will be up to the individual providers to decide who gets in added Notley.