Childcare in Alberta: Navigating the Path to Universal Childcare


Susan Cake, Athabasca University

With an investment of over $30 billion, the federal government has set Canada on a path to create what has become known as the $10-a-day universal early learning and childcare system. Alberta, in particular, has secured $290 million in funding over four years to implement this program. Despite being one of the most significant investments in a social program since Medicare, uncertainties persist as Alberta attempts to integrate elements of its previous childcare programs into its version of the $10-a-day system. These include the dominance of the for-profit sector, the use of demand-side funding, and structures facilitating what is termed "parental choice." In many ways, Alberta is seeking to embed aspects of a free-market structure within the federal governments efforts to create a nationwide universal program. This policy analysis reviews several components of Albertas attempt to integrate elements of its prior programs into the $10-a-day initiative. The analysis includes provincial legislation regulating childcare spaces, the original Canada – Alberta Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (2021-2026) , and the For-Profit Expansion Plan and Cost Control Framework agreement. The analysis also delves into the Alberta Governments efforts to lower parental fees, incentivize space creation, and address the shortage of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs). This project draws on the feminist political economy concept of social reproduction, which focuses on the labour ensuring peoples survival and the continuity of the capitalist economic system. States, through their legislation, regulation, and program development strongly influence how and what families must do to maintain themselves and meet the demands of a capitalist system. Key early learning and childcare policy and program components examined include operating grants, parent subsidies, space creation grants, and the early childhood educator wage top-up program. The project also analyzes Albertas training initiatives for early childhood educators. Alberta aims to retain elements of its previous system, which obliges families to adhere to the neoliberal notion that individuals and families must be self-responsible units. For instance, the insistence on retaining an income-tested demand-side funding stream kept a voucher style system in Alberta. As well, the use of wage top-ups for ECEs have kept base wages low and the lack of efforts to train more ECEs contributes to the current shortage of a predominately female workforce. The limited action on growing the non-profit and public sectors has constrained space creation, mainly confining it to dayhomes. Additionally, the province has allowed providers to begin charging additional fees to families with no regulatory oversight. These policy and program decisions compel many families to still rely on individual and family-based childcare solutions, often falling onto women, rather than granting them access to a universal system. This analysis suggests that Alberta appears to be reluctantly participating in the creation of a universal early learning and childcare system. This reluctance is evident in their policy and program implementation, which mirrors a free-market-based system and approach. Additionally, the governments inaction on various fronts has impeded childcare growth in Alberta, leaving many families waiting on the sidelines and resorting to increasingly limited care options.

This paper will be presented at the following session: