Child care and early learning

EDMONTON—The Speech from the Throne was delivered today by Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Lois Mitchell. It pledged to protect health care and education in the face of the government’s severe revenue shortage.

The Canadian Child Care Federation has launched a letter writing campaign to provincial/territorial and federal ministers around child care programs and services across the country.  Please use the text below, provided by the CCCF, to contact the Ministry of Human Services and the Ministry of Families, Children, and Social Development.  Contact information below.

"The Prentice government's pre-election budget would have resulted in larger class sizes, fewer students enrolling in post-secondary education, less capacity in our health care system, and seniors losing their drug benefits," said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta."

"Every year for the past several years, the Alberta government’s budget documents have included a graph titled 'Alberta's Tax Advantage'. The graph shows how much revenue the government would raise if it had the same tax structure as each of Canada’s nine other provinces. The graph ought to be more appropriately titled 'Alberta’s Revenue Disadvantage.'"

"One organization is sounding the alarm about a shortage of child care spots in the province as the enhanced benefits from Ottawa are rolled out. Public Interest Alberta maintains that the cheques will only have a marginal benefit for parents who are shelling out the big bucks or are on long wait lists."

"Some experts argue such large centres feel institutional, because people don’t know each other as well as in small care facilities. 'Our biggest concern, regardless of the size, is that the quality of the childcare is as high as possible,' said Public Interest Alberta’s Joel French. 'So related to that, the wages the workers are paid is very important.'"

Prominent Canadian economist Pierre Fortin, who Public Interest Alberta hosted at an event in Calgary on May 20th, was on CBC's Alberta at Noon talking about the economic benefits of affordable childcare. Have a listen.

In April 2015, Public Interest Alberta released a report entitled "A Just and Fair Alberta: Priorities for Change," which was designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in Alberta's 2015 provincial election.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta is releasing A Fair and Just Alberta: Priorities for Change, designed to serve as a key resource for individuals and organizations in the coming provincial election.“The election presents a major opportunity for those who care about public services to make a difference in our province,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “It is important that we all take advantage of this chance to advocate effectively for much-needed revenue reform that will provide the foundation for much stronger public services, and to state clearly what should be the priorities for change.”

"However, that program has since been cancelled and now that money has been going into general revenue ever since. Critics say it’s a huge issue, especially when so many Alberta communities need day care spaces. 'It’s a huge crisis. We know in Edmonton, Calgary, and other cities there are long waiting lists to get into quality child care and we are deeply concerned that the province unilaterally cut off its space creation program up until 2011 even though the federal government gives the province close to $26M a year to create more child care spaces,' says Bill Moore-Kilgannon with Public Interest Alberta."