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Alberta parents will not have to worry as much as their counterparts across the country when it comes to receiving Ottawa's $100 a month in child-care benefits -- and it's all thanks to the provincial prosperity cheques handed out earlier this year.
While tens of thousands of Canadians still have to apply for the federal Universal Child Care Benefit program, which begins next month, most Alberta parents already have their children signed up with the Canadian Revenue Agency.
That's because Albertans had to apply for the Canada Child Tax Benefit to get the $400 in "Ralph Bucks" for their children and they are in the federal database already. Parents whose children are not in the federal system will have to wait two or three months to have their child's application processed.
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The Harper government's $1,200-a-year program has been heavily criticized for not being enough to truly help poorer and middle-class Canadians pay for child care.
The benefit applies only to children under six.
- reprinted from the Edmonton Journal