Alberta signs extension on child-care deal with Ottawa, but only for a year

Ottawa will provide an additional $1.17 billion to Alberta in order to extend the federal-provincial subsidized child-care program for another year.

The previous agreement was set to expire April 1, 2026. The new deal will run through March 31, 2027.

Federal Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu announced the new deal alongside Alberta Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides on Friday afternoon.

Hajdu described affordable, high-quality child care as not just a benefit to children but also “an economic tool” that saves families thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars annually and lets more parents participate in the labour force.

“When parents can find good, reliable child care, they can work, train or build a business,” she said.

Nicolaides called the deal an “important bridge” that will provide both stability and time for the two levels of government to negotiate a more long-term agreement.

“We’re excited about the prospects of this new deal,” he said.

“We could’ve rushed into a long-term deal that maybe was not the best fit for Alberta, or we could try to find a temporary measure to continue our work to find a system that actually meets the needs of all Alberta families.”

Alberta is the last province to sign on to an extension.

Seven other provinces signed on to five-year extensions with the federal government back in March, while Ontario signed an agreement in principle. It was one of the final acts of former prime minister Justin Trudeau before he left office.

In November, Saskatchewan signed a five-year extension and Ontario signed a one-year extension.

Past disagreements

Ottawa and Alberta have been at odds in the past on some aspects of how the child-care agreement should function.

Alberta was one of the last provinces to sign on to the original deal in 2021, as then-premier Jason Kenney criticized the federal approach as too “cookie-cutter” and not flexible enough for parents.

The original agreement was signed in November 2021 with an initial goal of $10-per-day child care.

Since then, child-care costs for Alberta families have plummeted, from as high as $100 per day for some parents prior to the agreement to an average of about $15 per day now.

WATCH | Costs in Alberta expected to remain the same:

Alberta’s child-care minister asked about daycare costs, subsidies

Demetrios Nicolaides says Alberta isn’t considering any new subsidies as he lays out the challenges to getting closer to the $10-a-day daycare costs in other provinces.

Nicolaides said the new deal will see that $15 average price maintained.

According to the federal government, eight provinces and territories are now delivering regulated child care for an average of $10 a day or less.

Nicolaides said Alberta’s child-care system is different from other provinces because it relies more heavily on for-profit daycare facilities and family day homes.

As part of the new deal, Nicolaides said, Alberta negotiated an additional 5,000 new spaces in for-profit centres and the removal of a limit on funded spaces for day-home operators.

New spaces and growing pains

The deal has also seen 51,000 subsidized child-care spaces created over the past four years, according to government figures, across both facility-based daycare centres and day homes.

The new deal sets a goal of 68,700 spaces created, in total, by March 2027.

While the cost savings for Alberta families have been described as life-changing, there have also been numerous criticisms of the deal from parents, daycare operators and day-home operators over the years, as Alberta’s system has gone through numerous administrative changes since the deal was first struck.

Hajdu said there have been growing pains across the country as Canada tries to establish a more robust and consistent child-care system.

“It’s not a perfect system yet, but I can tell you it’s much better than nothing, which is what we had just a few years ago,” Hajdu said.