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A childcare shortage in the Bow Valley is preventing some teachers and educational assistants from returning to classrooms, according to a recent letter from Canadian Rockies Public Schools to the province.
In a Nov. 4, 2025, letter to Alberta Minister of Education and Childcare Dimitrios Nicolaides, Debbie McKibbin, who was assistant superintendent of Canadian Rockies Public Schools (CRPS) at the time, said limited access to licensed childcare is directly affecting staffing in the school division.
“The Bow Valley (Banff-Canmore) community faces an acute childcare crisis, with waitlists numbering in the hundreds,” wrote McKibbin, who is now superintendent of the school division. “The Canadian Rockies School Division currently has teachers and educational assistants unable to return to work because they cannot find childcare.”
The Outlook reached out to McKibbin requesting an interview for more information on how many teachers and educational assistants are affected by the childcare shortage but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Catherine Gagnon, a Grade 2 teacher at Elizabeth Rummel School in Canmore, said she was forced to extend her maternity leave after she and her partner were unable to secure childcare for their twins, Koa and Nova, born in July 2023.
Gagnon had initially planned to return to work in August 2024, but despite putting her children on daycare waitlists two days after they were born, she could not secure two spaces.
“It was not because I didn’t want to come back to work, but that it was because my twins didn’t have a place in childcare,” she said.
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That funding is calculated using provincial benchmarks that vary by age group and region. However, those benchmarks do not fully reflect the higher cost of rent and wages in communities like Canmore, so funding per licensed space can fall short of fully covering operating costs.
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“It’s impacting public education. It’s impacting the quality and stability of schools and it’s impacting the productivity of workers,” Gagnon said.