Alberta child-care centre owners claim they were coerced into signing onto Ottawa’s $10-a-day program. They say the provincial government tied all new and existing child-care subsidies to this program, which would have made their centres uncompetitive if they had not signed on.
“I risked significantly the possibility of losing clientele overnight by not signing,” said Kathryn Babowal, who owns Les Petits Soleils Inc., a French immersion preschool and child-care centre in Sherwood Park, Alta.
Subsidies such as wage top-ups for staff and funding for low-income families were previously managed solely by the province. But Alberta’s approach to the $10-a-day program lumps all subsidies for child-care owners into one contract.
A spokesperson for Matt Jones, Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and trade, refused to answer questions about the $10-a-day program contract between the province and child-care operators. Instead, the minister’s office referred to a previous statement that said, “Alberta’s government continues to engage with child-care providers as we develop a new funding formula to ensure the child-care system is sustainable and continues to meet the diverse needs of Alberta families.”
Other provinces, including Ontario, have not lumped all subsidies into one contract, keeping provincial subsidies independent of Ottawa's $10-a-day program.
Alberta’s lump-subsidy approach was a form of “soft coercion,” says Krystal Churcher, a child-care operator and chair of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, a not-for-profit that advocates for private child-care operators. It left many centres with no choice but to sign on to stay afloat.
