I own a daycare, and the government’s $10-a-day plan is threatening my business – Macleans.ca
Sarah Hunter’s daycare, the Imagination Tree, is struggling beneath the federal $10-a-day childcare program. (Photography by Leah Hennel)
My mom began Riverbend Daycare in Calgary in 1987, and I began working there quickly after it opened. I used to be 18, and I shortly discovered that childcare isn’t a typical nine-to-five job: you turn out to be a part of households’ lives. Over the years, I acquired to know their tales, shared of their hardships and celebrated their milestones. Occasionally, my mom and I even opened our houses to host kids when their dad and mom had household emergencies, and we provided recommendation and companionship to different households.
In early 2021, my mom, who was in her 70s, stepped again from the business and handed the reins to me. But since our lease was up, and the owner didn’t provide a renewal, we needed to shut Riverbend down. By then, I’d been working in daycare for 33 years, and it wasn’t only a business for me. It was a lifestyle. So, although many dad and mom have been preserving their kids at residence in these early pandemic days, I invested roughly $500,000—a mixture of my life financial savings, help from my mom and a few loans—to open a brand new daycare close to the place Riverbend had been. I referred to as it the Imagination Tree.
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I designed the Imagination Tree to supply play-based companies, together with a music program and an emotional agility coach, in addition to a full menu of wholesome meals for the youngsters. Depending on the kid’s age, my charges ranged from $575 to $1,200 monthly—which shakes out to roughly $29 to $60 a day. The day I opened my doorways in June of 2021, I used to be excited and proud, however I used to be additionally nervous. Taking care of kids is a sobering duty and, for the primary time, that burden fell instantly on me.
I couldn’t anticipate the challenges that lay forward. In November of 2021, Alberta and the federal authorities reached a $3.8-billion settlement aimed toward lowering daycare prices for folks to a median of $10 a day by 2026. Under the settlement, households would obtain expanded childcare subsidies relying on their revenue. And daycare operators have been required to decrease their charges by 50 per cent in 2022, with the plan of reaching $15 a day per little one by the 2023–2024 college 12 months. To guarantee viability, the federal government promised to supply operators with recurring grants that may assist cowl overhead and staffing bills. Operators would obtain set quantities of funding per little one, relying on the kid’s age and the kind of care they might obtain. For instance, we’d obtain as much as $626 a month per little one for full-time care of a preschool-aged little one.
I supported making daycare extra inexpensive, however this new system posed challenges for operators. After we lowered our charges, the province was taking 40 to 45 days to reimburse us with the promised grants. As we waited, we have been compelled to hold sizeable money owed and curiosity. At one level, I used to be often floating almost $100,000 of month-to-month debt for payments like lease, payroll and insurance coverage, in addition to bills for meals and gear. Instead of spending time with kids—which is my favorite a part of the job—I used to be holed up in my workplace for hours on finish, scrambling to stability the books as I waited for presidency funding to reach.
The points didn’t cease there. Like most companies, daycare operators have struggled with skyrocketing inflation because the pandemic started. The province offers operators some extra funding to compensate for this, nevertheless it’s not almost sufficient. Last 12 months, my prices for issues like lease and insurance coverage shot up by 18 per cent, however I solely acquired funding equal to a 3 per cent improve. This 12 months, the province raised funding to cowl six per cent inflation, which nonetheless isn’t enough. I’m left with an enormous disparity between what I’m receiving from the federal government and what it truly prices to run my centre.
Although the federal government’s promise of inexpensive, high quality childcare for $10 a day sounds interesting, it’s not practical. The $30 billion pledged by the federal authorities merely isn’t sufficient for your complete nation. Nowadays, you’d be fortunate to get a doughnut and low for $10, however for that very same value, daycare operators are anticipated to supply a top quality program to coach and care on your little one. What does $10-a-day childcare appear to be, realistically? Sacrifices loom massive, whether or not that includes reducing meals, artwork, or music packages, or mass layoffs of educators—which implies fewer and fewer folks caring for an increasing number of children.
I haven’t but been compelled to chop any packages, however I’m handcuffed by the constraints of the settlement, which is heartbreaking. At my mom’s daycare, we at all times prided ourselves on being inclusive, however I often have to show away kids with particular wants as a result of I can’t afford the extra staffing prices they require. I work 13-hour days and haven’t paid myself a wage since I opened the daycare three years in the past. It’s been exhausting and traumatic. If I didn’t love the households and youngsters, I might have shut up store way back and began one other kind of business.
I couldn’t have saved the daycare going with out my household’s help. My mom is now 77, however she nonetheless helps out by coming in daily and doing all of the cooking for the 96 kids we serve. My two grownup sons work for me full-time, serving to with issues like grocery procuring and transportation for the youngsters. At the top of every day, they clear the centre to save lots of on janitorial prices. Some of the youngsters I took care of again within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s have even began bringing their very own kids to the Imagination Tree. I treasure being a steady presence in these households’ lives, however I can’t maintain myself on ardour alone.
Right now, the Imagination Tree has a waitlist of 100 households, and plenty of different Alberta daycares have prolonged waitlists too—the demand is so excessive that, beneath regular circumstances, I might have opened a second centre. But with this settlement, nobody is opening new centres. It makes no monetary sense to spend money on a business that gained’t offer you a return in your funding. The ensuing lack of provide to fulfill rising demand will inevitably make childcare much less inexpensive, which is the exact opposite of the federal government’s aim. In the top, households and youngsters not directly pay the worth of the $10-a-day promise—one which doesn’t imply a lot to households in the event that they’re caught on waitlists for years.
I’m a member of the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, and we’re lobbying the federal government to overtake its settlement. We want a funding mannequin the place households obtain the grants instantly, in order that operators can cost acceptable charges that cowl our bills. That strategy would promote wholesome competitors, in addition to eradicate administrative burdens and reimbursement wait instances for operators. It would additionally give households the liberty to pick out childcare that matches their preferences and budgets.
In the meantime, we’ve already seen optimistic outcomes from collective motion. In January, I participated in a sequence of rolling daycare closures to place strain on the federal government. They’re lastly listening to us. As of March 1, they’ve promised to supply us with roughly 80 per cent of our grant funding at the start of every month, which implies we not have to attend upward of six weeks for many of our reimbursements. That offers me respiratory area to pay essentially the most pressing payments. But whereas it is a step in the precise course, it doesn’t tackle the broader problem of insufficient funding. At the very least, the subsequent factor we want is the power to extend our charges to match inflation.
I’m continuously confused that my household legacy, which I’ve helped construct for over three many years, is in jeopardy. I’ve invested all my life financial savings into my centre. I’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into it. And but that will not maintain it going lengthy sufficient for me to move right down to my sons. The short-term future is equally bleak for a lot of operators in comparable positions.
But this isn’t nearly daycare operators. It’s about all of us. Childcare helps form the long run—our governments’ $10-a-day promise shouldn’t be achieved at the price of a nurturing and enriching atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of kids. That’s why I implore the province to acknowledge the challenges operators are dealing with and work with us in the direction of a sustainable settlement. The destiny of childcare in Alberta hangs within the stability.
—As advised to Ali Amad
