Question Period Note: Funding of For-Profit Spaces in the Canada-Alberta Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreement

Will Alberta be expanding licensed, for-profit child care under the Canada-Alberta Canada-wide ELCC Agreement?

• Thousands of families across the country are already realizing the economic benefits of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system.

• To increase access to child care in Alberta, the Province will create 42,500 new child care spaces among licensed, not-for-profit, public, and family-based child care providers by the end of March 2026.

• Canada and Alberta will work together to implement a cost control framework that will govern the expansion of Alberta’s licensed, for-profit sector under the Canada-wide system.

IF PRESSED
• To ensure sound and reasonable use of public funds, a portion of the federal funding under the Canada-wide Agreement will be withheld subject to Canada and Alberta agreeing on an expansion plan and cost control framework for additional licensed spaces by for-profit providers.

The Government of Canada made a transformative investment of over $27 billion over five years as part of Budget 2021 to build a Canada-wide early learning and Child Care system with provinces and territories. Combined with other investments, including in Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care, up to $30 billion over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care. Adding previous investments announced since 2015, this means that as of 2025-2026, a minimum of $9.2 billion will be provided every year – permanently – for Early Learning and Child Care and Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care.
The goal is to bring fees for regulated child care down to $10-a-day on average within five years. By the end of 2022, the Government is aiming to reduce average fees for regulated early learning and child care by 50 per cent to make it more affordable for families. These targets would apply everywhere outside of Quebec, where prices are already affordable through its well-established system.
In total, the Government of Canada is aiming to create approximately 250,000 new child care spaces through Canada-wide agreements with provinces and territories. Through previous investments in early learning and child care, the Government of Canada has already helped to create over 40,000 more affordable child care spaces across the country prior to the pandemic, including over 2,500 in Alberta. These new licensed spaces will be predominantly among not-for-profit, public, and family-based child care providers.
The Government of Canada has signed agreements with every province and territory to deliver on its promise to build a Canada-wide affordable, inclusive, and high-quality early learning and child care system. The governments of Canada and Alberta signed a Canada-Alberta Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement on November 15, 2021.
While Canada-wide funding to Alberta will predominantly support licensed, not-for-profit, public, and family-based child care providers, the private sector will continue to play a role in the provision of childcare in Alberta. This will include licensed, for-profit child care providers.
Recognizing Alberta’s mixed market (not-for-profit / for-profit) system, a Canada-Alberta Implementation Committee will develop and propose a For-Profit Expansion Plan and cost control framework to support the growth of additional regulated spaces by for-profit, licensed providers.
While the For-Profit Expansion Plan and cost control framework is being developed, up to approximately 2,700 new for-profit spaces that are already planned and ready to come online shortly could be created and eligible for federal funding under this Agreement.
In addition, the agreement allows 1,000 additional spaces to be created by existing providers within existing facilities. The providers of these spaces will be eligible for federal funding referred to under this Agreement, except for the space creation support described in Alberta’s Action Plan.
The federal government will continue to work with provinces and territories to support primarily not-for-profit sector child care providers to increase quality spaces across the country while ensuring that families in all licensed spaces benefit from more affordable child care.

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