A flat monthly parent fee for full-time licensed child care the province introduced Jan. 30 won’t benefit everyone who requires it.
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READ: Alberta expands $15/day childcare to all full-time licensed facilities
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The new model will start April 1 and be applicable for parents with children attending daycare facilities and family day home programs across the province.
However, the provincial government will be doing away with the Child Care Subsidy Program for children zero to kindergarten age.
Carissa Knoll, a mother of two and early childhood educator at Mother Nature’s Preschool, said that the new child care model will be $15 a day regardless of income.
Carissa Knoll. Jayk Sterkenburg/CHAT News“Previously, what was happening was the subsidies were providing a gap or providing income to fill that gap for parents that were lower to middle class,” she said.
“They would receive a subsidy to offset their child care costs. And now the subsidy is gone, everybody will pay the same, regardless of income,” she added.
“No more subsidy, no more help, no more money.”
She said that having federal funding with the subsidy ensured that lower income families could send their children to daycare.
Brooke Stephanson-Kay, a mother of two kids at the daycare, said that with the current affordability grant, they’re paying $219 a month for child care.
She said with the new model that will come into affect in April, they will pay $650 a month.
Brooke Stephanson-Kay. Jayk Sterkenburg/CHAT NewsWith the subsidy being taken away, there won’t be any option for additional subsidies on top of the $326 a month, regardless of financial situation.
She said that the current subsidies are based off of a child’s age and take into account what age requires higher compensation.
“I just think it’s really unfortunate,” she said.
“There’s a lot of families out there that are maybe a single income family and they’re going to have to make decisions between having their kids in daycare and not,” she added.
“If you don’t have family in town to help you with your kids, if you don’t have that support, it’s a really dire situation for a lot of parents.”
Stephanson-Kay says that she wishes the province considered how the new child care model would affect everyone in the grand scheme of things.
