David Staples: Winners and Losers of Alberta’s $ 10-a-Day Child Care Program

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Biggest winner of Alberta’s new $ 10-a-day child care program? Alberta moms and dads.

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They will now receive significant federal financial assistance to help care for their children. Your child care rates, on average around $ 1,000 to $ 1,100 per month, will be drastically reduced.

Not everyone is happy with Ottawa’s $ 3.8 billion announcement over five years for Alberta’s child care. Some people consider themselves losers in this new deal.

However, I strongly suspect that most people will be pleased.

My own five children are in high school, college, and in the workforce, so I will not get direct help from this program, but if they have children one day, they could benefit. I’m glad to hear that.

In my opinion, there is no more stressful and difficult time for parents than those preschool years. They bring sleepless nights, relentless job responsibilities, and conflicts over which parent has to do which job in the endless marathon of required chores.

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And, unlike previous generations, many of us can no longer count on the substantial support of parents, friends, and neighbors during this challenging time. We are increasingly isolated, alone on an island of diapers, vomiting, tears and effort, trying to unravel the mysteries of raising healthy and productive children. Reasonable assistance to new parents that will help them provide sound care for their children is a great gift, but it will also likely prove to be money well spent.

Other winners today?

Justin Trudeau. First, his government devised a very popular program. Second, by showing some flexibility in allowing Alberta’s private child care operators to enter the funded child care mix, Trudeau demonstrated that he was willing to work with Alberta. This comes just as the province is starting to crack and burn again with resentment over Trudeau’s energy policies.

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Rachel Notley. She and her MLAs have long lobbied for less expensive government-subsidized child care and, more recently, for Alberta to opt for the federal program. Alberta doing so is a great success for the NDP.

Jason Kenney. If ever there was a prime minister who needed a victory, it is Kenney. He is receiving strong criticism from internal party dissidents, not to mention Notley’s NDP in polls. But with the number of COVID ICU patients now falling below 100, a handful of announcements of major industrial projects, and this child care deal, Kenney has scored some victories.

Ensuring that private operators are part of the Alberta system is a definite victory for him, as well as for the parents. Without competition, large public systems can stagnate and fail to meet the needs of citizens. We see the value of competition and parental choice, even for publicly funded private options, in our dynamic education system.

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Kenney’s acceptance of the federal program also addresses the main topic of conversation in the NDP’s criticism that the UCP ignores women’s concerns. That said, it’s also the case that Albertans and freedom-loving UCPs likely to rage at Kenney’s COVID restrictions will also be less happy with a massive new government right, like subsidized child care.

Private operators. Private operators provide about 69 percent of Alberta’s 140,000 licensed child care spaces, says Minister for Children’s Services Rebecca Schultz. They have been incorporated into this program, as desired by the PCU and it was necessary for a functioning system to take place.

As for the losers, there are a few.

Stay-at-home parents. Stay-at-home parents will continue to face the opportunity cost of not working an outside job and earning that income, but now will come the additional tax bill to pay for this important new right.

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Budget hawks. We are increasingly bankrupt and in debt. This show will only add to that. The federal debt is a monster that looks set to wipe out Canadian prosperity. We may end up with a low-cost daycare, but few jobs for people to work.

Social conservatives. Many people firmly believe that by far the best and healthiest way to raise children is with stay-at-home parents. This view is more prevalent in Kenney’s UCP. But, as mentioned, these parents are left out of this program. Instead, it allows and encourages both parents to go out and work. Social conservatives will condemn this as left-wing social engineering.

As for which approach to child care is really best for children, I have seen many different approaches and inconsistent results. It is difficult to know what is the best.

But I know that a large majority of Canadians want this program, which makes it inevitable. Kenney faced buying or saying no to $ 3.8 billion in federal funding in a program that is at least a decent gamble to do more good than harm in the tense realm of parenting.