Parents and childcare providers gathered outside Lethbridge city hall today to protest the implementation of $10 a day childcare. Many daycares closed for the day in protest and operators say though they advocate for affordable childcare, it leaves their businesses in a challenging position.
“The specific daycare that I work at has been in business for 40 years and thriving and now as of lately, is having a hard time meeting financial ends because we are waiting on government funds. We are losing our overall autonomy for our business to be able to operate and do those sorts of things that make us unique and special so we just need the government to listen to us to renegotiate a better agreement to be able to be affordable and sustainable,” says one local director of childcare, Austin Goldie. “The government is helping out by giving us the remainder of that amount of funds but we are having to wait 30-45 days to receive those funds. Some centres are not able to make it through the month while we wait for these funds.”
Krystal Churcher, chair of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, drove from Calgary to attend the protest and says it is the biggest one she knows of in the province. She says an unwillingness to listen from the provincial government is what led to many daycares shutting their doors for the day.
“This is a last resort, no one wants to close their centres and impact parents. We serve parents so putting parents out of childcare for a day is a tough decision, unfortunately we are at a standstill with our provincial government and our minister is very unwilling to listen,” Churcher says.
At her association’s meeting on Sunday, 90 per cent of childcare operators who are members agreed to close on Jan. 30. It represents 30,000 providers and she says others who are not part of the association have also closed.
Churcher is calling on the province to renegotiate deals to provide affordable childcare and to stand up to the federal government to ensure a new childcare model serves Albertans.
“I think parents in Alberta deserve affordable childcare but it has to be the right kind of childcare – it has to be a mixed market childcare, it has to respect the choices of parents to pick the kind of care that they want and also ensure that there is quality in that care, not just discounted childcare,” Churcher says.
Goldie says if there is no change to the implementation of $10 a day childcare, many operators could be forced to shut down. She points of this could create more challenges for parents who would be stuck on already long waitlists for new options.