Prime Minister Justin Trudeau high-fives a child after reaching $10-a-day child-care program deal in Brampton, Ont., on March 28, 2022.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Facing high food costs and the expenses of running a kitchen, the McKernan Child Development Centre closed its food program last September. Parents were told they could pack a lunch and snacks for their kids or pay for a service called the Second Chef that would deliver meals to the centre.
“There is some conversation of what our profession finds or deems quality, and most of us really deem quality as supplying some kind of food source. And right now, it’s not in the framework,” said Angie Clark, the Edmonton-based centre’s interim director.
The framework Ms. Clark was referring to is Alberta’s cost-control scheme under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement, which sets out how federal money is to be spent to bring child-care costs down to an average of $10 a day by 2025.
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The agreement does not specifically mention food, but it does allow for “enhanced services” that “may be provided at an additional fee to parents for services not deemed essential to the delivery of core child care.” Susan Cake, chair of Child Care Now Alberta, an advocacy organization, said that unless the framework is changed, many parents will likely see their fees rise as operators charge for everything above “core services,” as they are currently allowed to do.
“It puts $10 a day at risk. It will be $10 a day of base care,” Dr. Cake said. “And then parents will have the option to opt in to enhancements. The issue with this is that the government money is only going to cover base care.”
A spokesperson for Alberta’s Ministry of Children and Family Services said the government is consulting with child-care operators, parents and stakeholders to determine the implementation details of the cost-control framework.
But it seems at least some centres are already passing on extra costs for things above core services.
Milos Cvijanovic, director of the Second Chef, said his company has added two centres this year to its list of clients, with another two inquiring about starting his meal service in September. Last year, he brought four new centres on board. Before the pandemic, and before the introduction of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement, Mr. Cvijanovic would typically bring on one new centre a year, he said.
“Some centres do not have proper kitchens, so it’s not always the food cost is high or whatnot. But I want to say 80 per cent of the centres is because of the food cost and labour costs,” he said.
It’s not just food costs that may be passed on to parents in Alberta. Under the current cost-control framework, enhanced services “could include transportation, field trips, special programming or other additional costs that support innovation and creativity within the child care program.”
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Dr. Cake worries that core services that will be paid for with federal money, not by parents, may ultimately be defined as only those things currently covered by provincial child-care regulation.
“The regulation doesn’t require a curriculum, for instance. The regulation doesn’t require food. It doesn’t actually require certain indicators of quality that we’d like to see, such as having really highly trained educational workers or early childhood educators. So there’s a lot that is missing that child-care providers currently offer right now. We are very worried that the government is simply not going to fund those any more,” she said.
The government should adopt a framework similar to the one in Prince Edward Island, Dr. Cake said. There, centres that receive funding under the agreement must provide meals, among other requirements.
“When we think about the quality, we looked at things that were really important to PEI: making sure that children with exceptional needs were being accepted into programs, making sure that hot meals are something that is being provided to children, ensuring that a curriculum framework is being implemented,” said Doreen Gillis, the director of early childhood development with the Department of Education and Lifelong Learning.
Private centres account for 67 per cent of licenced spaces in Alberta. With centres only allowed to raise fees 3 per cent this year, it seems reasonable to believe that at least some will use the current cost-control framework to pass costs on to parents in order to maximize profits, Dr. Cake said.
“We are literally incentivizing spending as little money as you can,” she said.