Albertaos in the process of establishing new child care facilities say they have taken the carpet from under them, since the Alberta government informed them last week that they would not qualify for subsidies under the federal federal child care agreement.
“I am devastated,” said Arshdeep Kaur, who is in the process of renewing a building that he bought in Calgary and planned to open in July as a new nursery called Sparkling Kids.
Kaur moved to Canada from India in 2011 and began working in early childhood education the following year. She said she always dreamed of opening her own nursery and initially planned to do it once her own children were a little older.
But she says that her plans changed two years ago when her two -year -old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. While going through the treatment process, he had a lot of time to think.
“That’s when I decided, no, this is the right time to start my own nursery,” Kaur said.
His family at home in India sold his farm to help finance his dream.
After hunting months for a building to lease, it found nothing suitable for a nursery. She ended up buying a building, herself, and began to renew it in a child care center.
She says that she has now sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars in the company, all about the understanding that she, like most nursery operators in Alberta, would be eligible to participate in the Federal-Provincial Financing Agreement that has been in force since 2021.
But last Thursday, everything changed. It was then that he says that he received an email from the province that said that Alberta was close to the limit of new profit spaces that can qualify under the five -year agreement he signed with Ottawa, so his nursery would not qualify for government subsidies.
Without those funds, the price that parents would have to pay in their nursery could be three to four times higher than the flat rate of $ 326 per month offered in the qualified facilities of child care.
Kaur said that throughout all the round trips with government officials, he had to obtain the nursery to this point, in the midst of all permits and paperwork, he was never suggested that financing may not be available once it opens.
“The Government has never told me in the last year to be limited and will stop at some point,” he said.
“And now I have a debt almost a million dollars in myself.”
Disappointment, shock, panic
Cheryl Montgomery was ready to open a new nursery in the city of Nanton when she received the news that she would not qualify for government funds either.
“There was a disappointment. There was shock. I guess there was a level of panic,” he said.
“We have already invested a lot in this, including a lease contract signed for a year.”
Montgomery’s facilities, Little Ropes Learning, would have space for 22 children. I was waiting for a final licensing inspection before officially opening and already had a list of applicants for personnel and parents interested in registering their children.
But now, he is not sure how to continue without having access to government subsidies that were a key part of his business plan.
She has informed parents that, without those subsidies, they would have to pay the full rate of $ 1,100 per month, per child, and is not sure to have enough customers willing to pay that price.
Montgomery said he had no communication with the province that he would even suggest that he might not qualify for funds until he was suddenly informed last week that was not eligible.
She has been in contact with other operators in similar situations and says that some are now concerned about bankruptcy.
“It’s a terrifying situation to be,” said Montgomery.
“Financially, we have all invested much of our time, of our money. Now we have these centers that are quite ready to open tomorrow and now we have all crushed the news that we do not qualify.”
Profitless versus non -profit purposes
According to the agreement signed with the Federal Government in 2021, Alberta promised to use almost $ 4 billion in federal funds to “prioritize the expansion of non -profit nursery.”
The text of that agreement says: “Alberta undertakes to create a minimum of 42,500 non -profit spaces in the next five years.”
The terms of the agreement also say that Alberta “can create up to 26,200 spaces for profit”, for an objective of 68,700 new spaces, in total, at the end of the agreement in 2026.
Seven provinces and the three territories have signed the new federal agreements until 2031, while Ontario has reached an agreement in principle. Alberta and Saskatchewan have not reached new agreements with Ottawa.
As of March, the province says that approximately 19,500 profit spaces have been created under the Federal-Provincial Program, and approximately 3,000 additional spaces have been assigned to programs with previously approved space creation subsidies.
Montgomery says that the province informed him that he will no longer qualify new facilities for funds, except in a handful of communities where the demand for child care is especially high, which does not include Nanton.
‘Hang, sit next to the phone’
Demetrios Nicolaides is the new minister responsible for child care in Alberta, after a cabinet last week.
He told reporters on Wednesday that the province must guarantee “adequate access to child care spaces” in areas where there is the greatest demand.
“We are providing funds to the areas where more need to help relieve demand,” he said. “So it is largely driven by demand pressure.”
Nicolaides added that it is new on paper and solving these problems will be a priority for him.
“I think I have been minister of child care for about three or four days,” he said.
“Then, one of the first things that I will do very short is here is to reach many of those operators, defense organizations, umbrella groups and chat with them with a little more detail to try to get the best possible understanding of the points, challenges, worries, concerns, so that we can work together to address them. Then, I would only ask them to hang well, feel on the phone and give them a call with the call The chat and see them forward to chat forward to chat forward. ” “
Montgomery says that he has been trying to get anyone with the Alberta government since he received the news that he does not qualify for funds and has encountered silence.
“I’ve called, I sent an email … and I haven’t received anything back,” he said.
“There is zero government communication for me, personally.”
‘Could break us’
In a written statement to CBC News, Nicolaides said that he understands that the situation is “disappointing for those working entrepreneurs who open new programs without the same access to financing as their colleagues in the sector.”
“Alberta continues to press for greater flexibility, both in the current agreement and in the following, because suppliers and parents deserve better,” he said. “We will continue the negotiations in good faith with the federal government for an early learning agreement and early care that is free of arbitrary restrictions, treats all suppliers in an equitable way and points to support the families that need the most.”
With his nursery in Calgary still under construction, Kaur worries that he has to sell his own home to cover his debts if something does not change.
I doubt that someone is willing to buy the installation he bought, now that it has almost become a nursery, especially if the new operators continue are not eligible for government financing.
“We have invested everything. Everything we have,” he said.
“I could break us.”
