The Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta are working together to ensure families have access to the affordable, quality early learning and child care opportunities their children need to succeed.
Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, and the Honourable Rebecca Schulz, Alberta’s Minister of Children’s Services, reaffirmed their commitment to support early learning and child care by announcing an additional investment through a one-year Canada–Alberta Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
The agreement allocates more than $45 million in 2020–21 to Alberta for early learning and child care investments.
In particular, Alberta will create new licensed child care spaces through capital and program grants, provide child care subsidies to more families, support evidence-based training for child care staff and offset costs for child care centres associated with COVID-19 closures and reopening.
This agreement builds on the commitments made in the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework and outlines Alberta’s unique child care needs and priorities, including those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will ensure that funding continues to be available to support child care programs and services for Alberta families in 2020–21.
In addition, the Government of Canada recently announced an investment of more than $19 billion to help provinces and territories safely restart their economies and make the country more resilient to possible future waves of the virus.
This includes $625 million to help provinces and territories address the reduced availability of child care and the unique needs stemming from the pandemic.
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