There’s a lot to work through on how the UCP is rolling out the new child care funding, but I’m hearing that a lot of parents and operators are seeing their fees go up in January and the new funding is leaving a lot of gaps. #ableg
Operators have been struggling to stay afloat for the past 18 months given reduced enrolment, educators leaving the field & ridiculously inadequate support from the UCP. The delay in the signing & implementation of the federal deal increased that instability.
Simply to stay open, many operators are in a position of having to raise fees. Now we’re seeing the new funding model from the UCP is cutting some existing supports & putting new limitations on part-time care, kindergarten-aged children & operational funding.
The new subsidy & funding model will make child care more affordable for some parents, but not all, and there’s a lot of confusion. Preschools & dayhomes are still waiting for news about how they’re affected. Some parents will get more in subsidy but on increased fees.
I’m getting a lot of questions from parents & operators. I’m still trying to work it out myself.
I’m not the Minister, so I can’t clarify the program @rebeccakschulz is rolling out. But it sure would be nice if she did. #ableg
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The UCP took months longer than other provinces to sign a deal for child care.
Yet even w/ extra time, @rebeccakschulz can't communicate clearly how the new funding is rolling out. It's causing confusion.
What doesn't help? The Minister's answers to questions about it. #ableg
Child care providers have been struggling for months to keep doors open w/ inadequate supports. We've been calling on the Minister to do something about it and she's done next to nothing.
Now parents are getting notices child care fees are going up.
No one is clear which kids are included & which aren't or why. One day kindergarten-aged kids are included, the next day they aren't.
And all out of school care programs are completely excluded.
The most in need families are seeing the least increase in support.
Despite $300 million in the new child care deal for early childhood educators, the UCP is not using any of it to increase their pay. Alberta educators have the 3rd lowest wages in the country.🧵 #ableg
1) ECEs deserve to be paid a decent wage. They do critically impt work & should be paid properly.
2) Alberta has lost 1 in 5 educators over the past year. We need to attract & retain more educators now. Better pay & professional opportunities are key.
3) Child care operators are reporting significant challenges in attracting educators especially in areas like Fort McMurray.
4) The 40,000+ child care spaces that will be created under the new deal are meaningless without educators to fill those spaces.
The UCP are going to sign a deal with the feds for child care. They have to. They desperately need a good news story.
But they'll do it in spite of every ideological & political instinct they have. Because they've never believed in universal affordable child care. 🧵#ableg
From the moment they were elected, the UCP focused on ending the $25/day pilot program we introduced. They didn't once consider expanding it to all licensed programs as we'd planned. This would have addressed their main critique that not enough families had access to it.
But the UCP went further and also completely hid and misrepresented the results of the review of the $25/day pilot program, which was *overwhelmingly* positive. open.alberta.ca/dataset/fab44a…
The UCP’s failure to get a federal agrmt for $10/day child care signed before the election - something 8 other jurisdictions managed to do - is an epic failure of leadership by @jkenney.
And let’s be clear - this was the intent all along. 🧵#ableg
From the beginning, @jkenney deliberately mischaracterized the federal funding, falsely claiming it was only for “9-5, urban, institutionalized, union-run” child care & excluded for-profit providers. None of that was true. And they knew that. #ableg
When Albertans overwhelmingly expressed they desperately wanted & needed $10/day child care, they backed down a little and had @rebeccakschulz peddle out some word-salad stmts about being willing to negotiate. But that wasn’t true either. #ableg
As signs point to a fed election being called very shortly, I’m honestly a little shocked the UCP actually played the kind of craven political games I suspected they would with the fed child care deal (worth $3.8 billion to Alberta). #ableg
I know this sounds naive as an Opposition MLA, but there’s still a part of me that thinks “come on…they may surprise me.” Honestly. Even after the last 2 years.
Because even if I never expected them to do it because it’s the right thing to do (that ship sailed long ago)…
I keep thinking about how so many people kept saying (back in 2019, when I was a newbie to politics) that Kenney was some kind of political genius. That he was incredible at strategy.