By Chris Brown

Money already flowing

Province, feds announce $87M for child care in Alberta

Sep 22, 2020 | 10:27 AM

Licensed child care programs in the province will receive $87 million in new funding as part of Alberta’s Recovery Plan and the federal Safe Restart Agreement.

The funding includes $72 million from the federal government’s Safe Restart Agreement, $8.2 million from a previously-struck Canada-Alberta Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreement and the remaining $6.9 million from Phase 3 of the province’s Child Care Relief program.

“When centres closed, parents of almost 110,00 children across Alberta were without child care at a moment’s notice,” said provincial Minister of Children’s Services Rebecca Schulz. “This meant many were forced to stay home instead of going to work and the importance of childcare was put into sharp focus. Then it became clear that a world or an Alberta without child care simply was not an option.”

Schulz said most child care centres and preschools across the province have opened but many are still struggling with low enrolment across the province.

“Child care programs have already begun to receive the September support of $109 per licensed space. This is the third phase of funding that we committed to this spring and have started to roll that funding out to centres across the province. They will now receive $200 per space, plus a $2,500 grant per child care centre in both October and November through this grant we’re announcing today.”

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Ahmed Hussen, the federal minister of families, children and social development, said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that we cannot work in silos.

“So federal, provincial and territorial governments as well as our municipal partners will continue to work together to safely get back into quality and safe learning environments to help get parents back to work,” he said.

In total, the federal government is providing $625 million to child care providers across the country.