COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on an issue of disparity many families in Alberta have faced— Access to quality, safe and affordable child-care.
This is a problem running through the core of the province and affects many in the Cochrane community.
Families have been forced to choose between working or child-care— A heart-wrenching decision no parent should face.
Cochrane mom Lisa Arsenault put it best, “I can’t afford to go back to work, because I can’t afford child-care— But, then we're also stuck in a situation of being laid off and not having a job and also needing income.”
Steps have been taken in Cochrane to support the development of child-care day homes to increase accessibility and affordability in town, but additional actions are crucial.
Child-care is a community issue and there is a likelihood we may see fewer spaces available for children when the pandemic comes to an end.
Many child-care facilities in town are struggling in the face of the global health crisis— Enrolments are down as many families are either working from home or facing unemployment, cohorts are reducing the number of children who can visit centres and COVID-19 safety procedures have exponentially increased the cost of running a child-care facility.
The Province of Alberta has recognized the important need for child-care. Budget 2021 highlighted accessibility to child-care as an essential aspect of the province’s economic relaunch.
“Child-care is essential for Alberta’s economic recovery. Through improving access to accessible and quality child-care, the ministry supports Alberta’s economy by creating employment opportunities and supporting parents to participate in the workforce,” says the budget.
Budget 2021 included $72 million for the child-care Safe Restart federal government program and $23 million for critical worker benefits for child intervention and child-care programming. The Ministry of Children’s Services has also reallocated $28 million in supports to assist child-care centres in safely re-opening.
These are noble steps but more actions are needed at both the provincial and federal level
According to the province as of Feb. 12, 96 per cent of daycares, preschools and out-of-school care programs (2,739 programs) are open, but only 58,003, or 50 per cent, of the 115,285 spaces are filled.
A report from Statistics Canada released in July 2020 indicated that about 60 per cent of children from ages zero to five needed informal child-care in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic Albertans needing child-care dropped to about 15 per cent. Other provinces such as Quebec and Ontario had five per cent of children in child-care, while the prairie province Saskatchewan and Manitoba saw 20 and 16 per cent respectively.
Child-care is an essential service in Cochrane, Alberta and Canada and additional aid is needed.
Targeted subsidies will help ensure no child-care providers will be forced to close their doors during the pandemic. Taking these tangible and essential steps will ensure spaces are available when parents return to the workforce.
To quote mom and Early Childhood educator Maribel Farias, “Providing quality child care is very costly. Children shouldn’t have to miss out because your parents can’t afford it.”
