Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. My name is Susan Elson, and I represent the Alberta Child Care Network Association. I am also the executive director of Davar Child Care Society here in Calgary.
I would like to thank the committee for providing the opportunity to share the views of the Alberta child care community.
The Alberta Child Care Network Association is an umbrella organization, which was formally established five years ago but has been active since 1986. The association represents a significant number of child care centres and family day-home agencies in organizations across Alberta. Our membership includes both non-profit community-operated child care as well as private owner-operated programs. Collectively the members of our organization provide quality child care service to thousands of Alberta's children and their families.
The Alberta Child Care Network Association mandate includes promoting quality child care on behalf of the children and families of Alberta, supporting early childhood educators through training and education, examining and evaluating government policy and initiatives as it pertains to child care, and promoting public awareness and education as it relates to child care. I would like to clarify that “child care” in Alberta, as I'm defining it today, includes licensed and monitored child care centres and approved family day-home agencies.
I would also like to acknowledge the support and progress that Alberta Children's Services and the Alberta provincial government have provided to the child care community in our province.
I am speaking today to let you know of the Alberta Child Care Network Association's strong support for Bill C-303. In Alberta, as in every other province in Canada, we have struggled for decades to meet the high demand from families for high-quality, affordable child care services. We have watched as federal investments meant for child care have come and gone, some of them helping to make improvements, supporting minor initiatives, and some being invested in one-off programs, which have not had a lasting impact in building an early-learning child care system.
In the federal 2007-08 budget this year, Alberta has seen a cut in federal transfers of $92 million, which was to be transferred to Alberta communities to help address the critical shortage of child care spaces, to address quality through the Alberta child care accreditation process, and to continue to improve the wages of early childhood educators. With no accountability mechanism, $117 million was reduced to a mere $25 million. This is why the Alberta Child Care Network Association supports Bill C-303, an act that would ensure that federal investments in child care are directed to further development of the early learning and child care system that Albertans, and indeed Canadians, need and want.
In Alberta we are struggling even more than other provinces with recruitment and retention of early childhood educators to care for children because of the horrendous labour force shortages in our province. Under-resourced child care centres continue to compete in a labour market that engages in bidding wars to pay much higher wages. Alberta's workforce is crippled by the lack of available child care spaces. Parents who wish to combine parenting and employment simply cannot find or afford the care they need to support them in their employment and/or training. The cost of living in Alberta is high. In most two-parent families, both parents must work just to afford a place to live. Child care is not a luxury for families; it is a necessity.
We have worked hard in Alberta to improve early learning and child care services. Our accreditation system has done much to improve the quality of early child care services in Alberta, but there is much more to be done. Alberta's children deserve better. They deserve the guarantee to quality that Bill C-303 will provide through the principles of quality, affordability, universality, and developmental programming.
In recognition of Alberta's significant aboriginal population, we would further urge you to dedicate federal funding to aboriginal governments to ensure that aboriginal families under federal jurisdiction receive comparable resources to build their own early learning and child care services.
While our membership includes both not-for-profit community-owned child care programs as well as private owner-operator programs, we recognize the need to build a public child care system much like our public education and public health care systems.
Child care simply cannot be left to the marketplace. We have seen how the market approach has failed not only families, but also the committed operators who provide the services. Bill C-303 recognizes owner-operators as an important, if not critical, part of the foundation on which the system should be built. All of us, community-based and private, share the deep desire to provide high-quality, affordable, accessible, early learning child care services to Alberta's families. It's something that can only be achieved with the legislative framework that protects and supports the building of a system. Existing owner-operators are faced with the same challenge and will benefit from increased protected resources that will allow them to enhance the quality of their programs, pay substantial wages, and perhaps eke out a living that is more than an act of goodwill.
While the Alberta child care community has worked hard to achieve progress in many areas, the fact remains that significant financial investments by both the federal and provincial governments are required to build the child care system that is so desperately needed, not only in Alberta, but in Canada. Governments have an obligation to ensure that these investments are protected and publicly accountable. Therefore, we call on the members of the committee and the government to pass Bill C-303 , the Early Learning and Child Care Act. I encourage you to support Bill C-303. It's the accountable thing to do.
Thank you so much for your time today.
