![Advocate calls on Alberta to opt out of $10-a-day child care plan](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Childcare-pic.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=720&h=379&crop=1)
Advocate calls on Alberta to opt out of $10-a-day child care plan
Global News
An advocacy group is calling on the Alberta government to withdraw from the federal government's $10-a-day child care plan.
The Alberta government’s announcement to withdraw from the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) has caught the attention of other industries that also want to opt out of their respective federal programs.
Earlier this week, Premier Danielle Smith wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the dental care plan. Smith said the CDCP “unnecessarily replicates” publicly funded dental coverage that is already available to many Albertans.
Similar concerns apply to the childcare industry, according to Krystal Churcher, chair of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs.
“The federal government announced $10/day childcare, then went to the provinces and negotiated vague agreements,” she said in a statement.
“They are now dictating terms in behind-closed-doors, one-sided discussions, which is unacceptable.”
Churcher’s association has pushed the province to steer clear of the federal government’s $10 per day child care deal. The reduced costs for parents come from a $30 billion deal that would eventually cut childcare costs for families to $10 a day by 2025.
Churcher said operators aren’t getting enough funding to provide adequate programming. The lack of funding has also caused rolling closures with some on the verge of permanently shutting down, she said.
“We absolutely think that having affordable childcare is critical for families all across Canada, but what we have learned and seen firsthand since this rolled out in Alberta three years ago is that it’s not working the way it is structured federally,” Churcher told Global News.