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Child-care fee helps wrong people
The recent surprise announcement from the minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade that full-time daycare in Alberta will henceforth be paid at a flat rate of $326.25 a month ($15 a day) will no doubt be welcomed by mid- to high-income earners. The child-care providers, who will see an increase in the subsidies they receive from government, are similarly pleased.
The group that is understandably not pleased are the low-income earners who had previously depended on the Child Care Subsidy Program to offset the costs of daycare. The impact of these announcements on families already stretched and struggling to meet their budgets is unimaginable. It hearkens back to the UCP decision to end indexing on AISH payments for the most vulnerable people in the province. The fact is, that the people who will receive the benefit of this standardization need it the least. And lower-income families will be forced to adjust budgets, take extra work shifts, and borrow from friends and relatives just to exist day to day.
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