4,500 new spaces to be created

CALGARY Alberta’s NDP government is creating 4,500 new subsidized daycare spaces with an infusion of federal cash.

But the Notley government’s push for universally available $25-a-day daycare remains a work in progress as it prepares to tighten its belt in the spring budget.

Children’s Services Minister Danielle Larivee announced Tuesday Alberta will establish up to 78 new non-profit Early Learning and Child Care Centres, with a capacity of 4,500 $25-a-day spaces.

Those will come on top of 22 existing facilities with 1,200 spaces.

“We know the need is great and we know the centres are making a difference,” said Larivee at the Imagine Early Learning and Child Care Centre in northeast Calgary.

The government is asking for proposals “for child care programs that show innovative approaches,” with the successful applicants to be announced in the spring.

The new spaces are funded with $45.6 million in federal funding over three years. The province funded the first round of subsidized spaces to the tune of $10 million.

In the 2015 election, the NDP promised to move toward $25-aday daycare “as finances permit.”

“We’ve always been clear that our goal is universal $25-a-day child care across Alberta,” Larivee reiterated Tuesday.

But two years of recession that battered the province’s bottom line have meant slower progress than the NDP wanted on the child care front.

And after two straight budgets with deficits over $10 billion,

both Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci have said the government is aiming for “compassionate belt-tightening” in the 2018-19 budget.

In a statement, United Conservative Party MLA Leela Aheer said the party is concerned whether the daycare program is financially sustainable when the government is awash in red ink.

Larivee said it’s difficult to say how many spaces would be needed to hit the government’s goal of universally available affordable daycare. When implemented, the full 5,700 subsidized spaces will account for about 20 per cent of licensed spaces in the province, but there are many more children

in unlicensed facilities.

Danielle Pitman, whose son is enrolled at the Imagine Early Learning and Child Care Centre, said the program was a lifeline as the day home he formally attended was set to close.

“It’s made a huge difference to me and my son and my family who are able to afford great child care,” a choked-up Pitman said.

A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives looked at daycare fees across the country.

The cheapest child care was $168 a month in Montreal, where the Quebec government provides a significant amount of public funding.