AACE National’s Online Childcare Parent Awareness Meeting Attracts Over 1,000 Participants

Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs is a not-for-profit comprised of childcare operators from across the province. Its goal is to advocate for choice in childcare that supports both families and operators.

Support for Canada’s childcare operators builds as sector prepares for National Week of Awareness and closures to highlight growing crisis impacting industry.

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA, October 18, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — AACE National, a national committee of both nonprofit and for-profit childcare operators created by the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs (AACE), hosted an online parent awareness meeting last night, following two other in-person sold out parent events in Ontario in the last week. These meetings are being held to discuss the critical challenges facing the childcare sector across Canada. With over 1,200 parents coast to coast attempting to register last night, the oversubscribed online meeting was a vital forum for helping parents understand the impacts of the $10/day childcare program on both operators and families across the country. A second meeting has been scheduled for October 22.

The meeting highlighted the significant financial and operational pressures childcare providers are enduring across Canada due to the gross underfunding of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Agreement. As operators grapple with insufficient funding, rising costs and pending cost control funding models that will scrutinize spending and eliminate all program autonomy, the future of Canada’s high-quality, mixed-market childcare system hangs in the balance.

“Last night’s remarkable turnout underscores the deep concern that parents have for the future of childcare,” said AACE National Co-Chair, Krystal Churcher. “We, of course, want to keep affordable fees in place for parents but also ensure that that affordability doesn’t come at the cost of quality, access or their choice. Parents deserve more than a rigid one-size-fits-all system but rather something that truly works and is accessible to everyone. AACE National is committed to advocating for solutions that keep children’s welfare and family choice at the forefront.”

Key topics of discussion for concerns with CWELCC and some solutions included:

– Implementation errors: Funding does not come close to reflecting the true cost of quality childcare.

– Quality: Financial strain and unsustainable programs are impacting services and causing a staffing crisis.

– Affordability: Only one third of eligible children have a funded spot, the majority of whom are from high-income families.

– Access: Crisis-level waitlists coast to coast are forcing parents to quit jobs.

– Ideology that limits parental choice: CWELCC envisions a centralized public system that excludes for-profit providers, even though they are willing to expand to meet demand.

– Cost control framework: Funding is at bare bones levels, stripping away provider autonomy.

– Actions: Immediate actions that can be taken by parents to advocate for balanced policies and protect quality, access and choice were recommended.

– Solution: It was agreed that the ideal solution is the re-establishment of provincial jurisdiction via envelope funding, with grants going directly to parents.

A Growing Movement for Change

This evening’s meeting was part of a larger movement spearheaded by AACE National to raise awareness about the unintended consequences of the CWELCC agreement. As provincial versions of the childcare agreements approach critical junctures and impending deadlines to opt in to cost control funding frameworks, parents and childcare operators are joining forces to ensure that the on the ground realities are revealed.

Starting next week, from October 21 to 25, AACE National will launch a National Childcare Awareness Week. This campaign will include a range of advocacy initiatives aimed at educating the public and driving meaningful changes to reinstate provincial jurisdiction over childcare via envelope funding to provinces and territories. Parents and community members are encouraged to offer support to raise awareness via a petition and letter-writing campaigns, while operators also engage in social media actions, and optional rolling closures of programs.

“The need for change to the so-called affordable childcare program has reached a critical juncture,” added Churcher. “The federal government is putting policy before children, discriminating against these overwhelmingly female entrepreneurs who, for decades, have run the majority of Canada’s childcare system to serve families. By forcing an inflexible one-size-fits-all public system, they are ignoring the real stakeholders in childcare. But after tonight’s meeting, parents are definitely starting to see the undeniable gaps and intend to contribute their voices to needed change.”

About AACE National:

The AACE National Committee on Childcare Reform is leading the effort to shift from federally-controlled funding to no-strings-attached envelope provincial funding, empowering provinces to create childcare solutions that ensure affordability, accessibility, quality and parent choice. AACE National encompasses thousands of childcare operators from across Canada who have come together to raise awareness about the devastating impact that the Canada Wide Early Learning and Childcare Agreement (CWELCC) is having on the childcare industry, on childcare quality and parental choice.

For more information about National Awareness Week and to register for the second national parent meeting on October 22, visit aacenational.ca.

Krystal Churcher, Chair
Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs (AACE)
+1 780-838-3103
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