It’s Family Day in Alberta today (February 17th). And Matt Jones, Minister responsible for child care in Alberta, apparently wants to celebrate by making plans to leave the child care agreement that will bring $15 a day child care to the province on April 1st. And he wants to blame the federal government while he does it. But the truth is, most decisions about child care in Alberta are entirely in the hands of the provincial government.
Take the cancellation January 30th of Alberta’s child care subsidy program that helps low-income families. Matt Jones cancelled it, as part of the move to a flat child care fee of $15 a day. He didn’t have to do that. Every other province and territory outside Quebec has a child care subsidy program targeted at low-income and otherwise vulnerable families as part of their move to $10 a day. Alberta’s agreement with Ottawa committed to an “average fee of $15 a day” in 2024-25, not a flat fee of $15. Why did Alberta have to cancel the subsidy payments? No reason at all.
And then Minister Jones had the gall to say that Alberta might have to withdraw from the $10 a day program because the federal government doesn’t allow him to target support to parents that need it the most. In an interview with LakelandTODAY.ca, the Minister said: “The current federal agreement is not flexible to allow us to income test, say households earning under a certain amount of income.” Which is plainly untrue.
In a Facebook post, Minister Jones cited other reasons for planning to withdraw child care support from Alberta families. He said that the program is underfunded by Ottawa, by more than $4 billion over the next few years and that the child care agreement that Alberta voluntarily signed back in November 2021 is “unfair to the majority of child care providers”.
This week the federal government offered Alberta and other provinces the chance to extend existing child care agreements for another 5 years and receive more money to do so. But, Mr. Jones wants even more money and he wants flexibility. And if he doesn’t get it, Alberta will pull out of the $10 a day child care program. As he puts it in government-speak, Alberta “will be forced to transition out of what is, and will be, an unsustainable program.”
In 2025-26, Alberta will be getting nearly $1.1 billion through this agreement to support low-fee child care. In its agreement with Ottawa, Alberta calculated that it could lower fees to $10 a day for 134,691 children for a cost of much less than that – for $829.93 million. What changed? Unless Alberta child care costs are completely out of control, there should be enough money right now. So, why not sign on to continue the program?
Minister Jones real reason for being willing to take away your low-fee child care comes down to “flexibility”. “Flexibility” is a code word. In 2021, Alberta agreed to expand home child care and not-for-profit child care spaces by 42,500 and for-profit child care spaces by only 26,200. Two-thirds of Alberta’s child care spaces are commercial now, so extra expansion of non-profit facilities would provide some balance and choice for families. Minister Jones wants to wiggle out of that agreement. That would be called “flexibility”. Apparently, the evidence that non-profit child care services are stronger promoters of high quality is unimportant to Minister Jones.
Frankly, Minister Jones reasons for not signing on to continue the $10 a day child care plan are flimsy. I think he is in the pocket of that portion of commercial operators who want to be able to charge whatever fee they want, and earn whatever profit amount they can get away with. He might call that giving money to parents in the form of a tax credit. But we know that it means no more limits on parent fees – no more $15 a day child care or $10 a day child care. And that would mean unaffordability for parents. Not a good plan.
The purpose of the $10 a day agreements between provinces and territories and the federal government is to ensure that low-fee child care services are available to families and children when and where they want them. Not every family wants to use child care throughout a child’s early years. But most Alberta families use child care for some time as their children grow. For instance, 61% of Alberta’s children who are 4-5 years of age and not yet in kindergarten use licensed child care. Many more want an expansion of low-fee child care services. In my opinion, Minister Jones should sign on to continue the $10 a day child care funding for Alberta parents and children.