‘It’s heartbreaking’: Child care advocates say government support lacking

Krystal Churcher and Andrea Mrozek speak with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about support for affordable childcare programs.

Child care advocates Krystal Churcher and Andrea Mrozek speak with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about how federal and provincial governments could best roll out affordable day-care programs.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: In response to these latest changes, you initially expressed disappointment, signaling operators weren’t given details ahead of the announcement. Now you’re commending the Smith government. What’s changed?

Krystal Churcher: We were disappointed in how the announcement rolled out. Operators were left hearing from media about the announcement, or hearing from parents showing up in their centres asking questions.

We had hoped that the ministry would have waited until the town hall with operators to communicate that first and give operators the chance to come to parents with an informed message, instead of scrambling to try and figure out what was happening.

MH: But you do now, and now that you’ve had a chance to see the changes, you approve. Can you explain why that is?

KC: We feel that our province is really doing the best they could with the hand they’ve been dealt under this federal program. We appreciate that Alberta is taking a bit of a leadership role here in this agreement compared to some of the other provinces.

We are really grateful that we don’t have the agreement on the table that Ontario does as operators. I think that this is not a perfect agreement, there’s a lot that could still be changed, but within the federal program and the parameters that have been set by the Canadian government, I do feel like this is probably the best option at this time for Alberta.

MH: Andrea, what perspective can you bring to these changes from outside our province?

Andrea Mrozek: Well, my heart really goes out to the single mother who’s watching her fees go up. The saddest part of that is that it’s completely unfair and inequitable, and that that’s baked into the way that the program is designed.

Our program, the CWELC, Canada Wide Early Learning Child Care, across the nation is based on Quebec’s program. And in Quebec, early on, we have a lot of data to show that wealthy people were accessing spaces on the backs of the low-income people who would need it more.

So the major problem with the Alberta program, as it’s been updated recently to the $15 a day, is the same as it was before, and the same as other provinces: It is not possible to do low cost, high quality and universal. And to help that single mom, who’s watching her fees go up, you need to have a targeted program to help people who are lower income and we’re just not seeing that in Alberta as we’re not seeing it also across the rest of the country.

MH: Krystal, how do you address the disparity created by these changes? Is there not a way to have $15 a day, but also subsidies for low-income families?

KC: It’s heartbreaking to hear from parents who are now facing this increase in fees. This has been something we’ve talked about from the very beginning of this program: a universal program across Canada that provides the same rates and the same affordability, regardless of income and means.

This is where we are because of those federal parameters on the provinces to roll it out in a universal way. To Andrea’s point, even before this agreement and the change to a flat fee, we were seeing wealthier families accessing the $10 or the affordable spaces that had been created because they were the ones that were already in full-time daycare. When this program rolled out, they were the ones on the top of the waitlist.

We have seen a disparate disparity in that where the low-income families were, the ones coming in later on and sitting on the waitlist. I think from the very beginning, this program hasn’t rolled out in an equitable way, and it continues to push through Canada and fail families each step of the way.

MH: Andrea, it’s hard to ignore the fact there’s a lot happening at the federal level right now. Trump tariffs, Liberal leadership changes, likelihood of an early federal election. Where does this potentially leave dialogue on federal child-care programming?

AM: Quite obviously, this is a very, very difficult time for Albertans and all Canadians, and it is not an ideal time to be pushing forward on an inequitable and really inefficient child-care program.

Even if I were in favour of this style of child-care funding — and I’m not because it’s inequitable — I think this is the worst time in Canadian history to bring it forward simply because we’re going to see our resources, our tax dollars, constricted.

We may be heading into a recession. The money simply will not be there to fund this program to a high-quality level, so then you’re going to be left making choices about who has access. And I would point out that in Alberta, over half of kids are not in the type of care that gets the money.

So once again, we’re looking at that situation of people who are low-income, people who could use help, being left out in the cold all because we embarked on a program that’s probably inequitable to begin with, and we’re doing so at the worst time.

So the solution is clear, you can have a more efficient system by giving money to parents and having it be targeted to income.

MH: Krystal, on that point, where then do you see the conversation heading as it relates to our province and the dynamics of the changing political situation in Ottawa? How do you get to the point where there is sustainability of child care?

KC: Our association has advocated for envelope funding to go to the province, to remove the federal strings on this program, hoping that maybe we’ll start to see some shift in government and maybe some more perspective on a child-care system than we have.

I believe that parents should be the ones that are having this funding in their hands. They can direct it to a centre or child-care option of their choice. I think that right now, parents who are impacted by this, and educators and operators, this isn’t a great time for you to start advocating and bring these challenges forward to the federal government. We’re seeing a federal leadership race right now where candidates are flip flopping all over the place on other policies like carbon tax.

Maybe this is time to start highlighting these issues that we’ve been seeing across the country and across Alberta under this $10/day rollout. I think that this is not the way forward, it’s got to end, and I think that we need to start taking a pause and really evaluating if this is the way we want to move forward on the backs of taxpayers.