At least 4 Edmonton daycares closed Tuesday as part of provincewide protest
Several daycares in Edmonton are closed Tuesday to join others across the province protesting the $10/day child-care program.
The exact number of facilities provincewide participating in the rolling closures organized by the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs (AACE) is not known, however AACE has confirmed at least four in the capital city.
The association on Friday called the move a last resort to get the attention of both levels of government, as well as parents, about their concerns over the payment structure and rates that were frozen below inflation.
According to AACE, daycare owners are waiting more than a month for the province to dole out the funds from the federal government, causing them delays paying staff and other operating expenses.
“We’re caught in the middle of two completely different styles of government that are trying to find a way to create a new program with different goals and it’s not working,” AACE chair Krystal Churcher told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.
In a statement Tuesday morning, Alberta’s minister of children and family services reiterated his support for the province’s collaboration with Ottawa to provide $10/day child care.
“It is disappointing that a small number of child care programs who do not support $10 per day care are choosing to scare families with random closures instead of engaging in good faith on the development of a new early learning and child care funding formula,” Minister Searle Turton said.
This is a developing story… More to come…
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa and Chelan Skulski
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