On behalf on Minister Matt Jones, Minister of Infrastructure Pete Guthrie announces proposed amendments to the Early Learning and Child Care Amendment Act, 2024. Government of Alberta/YouTube

By rdnewsNOW Staff

PROVINCIAL POLITICS

Alberta government aims to strengthen child care safety and transparency with new legislation

Oct 30, 2024 | 5:15 PM

The Alberta government has proposed changes to its child care legislation that it says will hold non-compliant providers accountable and speed up its ability to address issues in care, as part of a broader push for transparency and safety.

The amendments will also allow the child-care licensing team to impose penalties on license holders and educators who don’t meet quality standards and jeapordize child safety, which officials said would align the province with other Canadian jurisdictions.

Alberta’s jobs, economy and trade minister Matt Jones said in a statement Wednesday that Albertans “deserve transparent, high-quality and safe care” for their children.”

“When parents, guardians and caregivers go to work or school, they need to know their children are safe in their child-care setting,” Jones added.

“The Early Learning and Child Care Amendment Act, 2024, would strengthen the tools available to enforce quality care and give parents peace of mind that their government has their back.”

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Government officials said the changes would also help parents make more informed choices about their child’s care by making non-compliance accounts, stop orders, and the certification status of early childhood educators more accessible.

Further, with the intention of minimizing the impacts of closures to families and their children, the province’s amendments would allow it to target specific issues at a facility by only closing part of a program, rather than the entire thing.

Bernice Taylor, program manager at the Drayton-based Early Childcare Development Centre, was cited in an Alberta government release as supporting the changes.

“As an established child-care provider, parents in my community trust in me to provide quality care,” Taylor said.

“I am more than happy to provide parents with every reassurance they need so they can go to work and know their kids are safe, healthy and well taken care of in my facility,” she added.

“It is great to see the province stepping up and putting forward these important changes.”

If passed, the government says the updated Early Learning and Child Care Act would address the recommendation from the Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Review Panel to clearly state that all facility-based licence holders must comply with applicable zoning, health and safety legislation.

The proposal Wednesday comes three weeks after the Alberta government closed an Edmonton-based daycare centre over a number of non-compliances involving unsupervised children.

Child care has been in the spotlight this year as many operators, including in Medicine Hat, say they have struggled to provide quality programming amid the new provincial-federal grant funding program.