The Alberta Liberal Party is promising to boost wages for child-care workers by 15 to 30 per cent to deal with the crippling labour shortage many daycare centres are facing.
Leader Kevin Taft made the $63-million commitment Tuesday before a group of parents and child-care workers at the Children's Academy Daycare in southeast Edmonton.
Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft announced his party's new child-care policy at an Edmonton daycare Tuesday.
(CBC)
"Child-care workers do wonderful work with our children. Many families rely on them," Taft said. "But their work is very demanding and badly underpaid. That's why centres have a hard time finding and retaining staff," he added.
Taft's plan to fix the problems includes:
- Increasing wages for child-care staff to be financed through increased provincial grants.
- Forgiving student loans for child-care workers who remain in the province for three years after graduation.
- Improving start-up and operational funding for accredited child-care operators.
- Providing specialized assistance to centres that offer infant and toddler care.
The Liberal plan does say how many spaces the initiatives could create, but estimates increased operating funding and start-up grants alone could lead to about 1,600 new spots.
Taft attacked the Conservative plan, announced in the first week of the campaign, which calls for tax cuts to create new spaces and hiring foreign workers to deal with the staffing problem.
"In Ed Stelmach's fantasy world tiny tax cuts will magically create 14,000 new child-care spaces, and temporary foreign workers will fill underpaid positions no one else wants," he said.
The NDP announced its plan for child care on Monday. It would see $268 million go into creating 4,000 new child-care spaces, along with caps to the fees parents have to pay.
The provincial election is March 3.
Related
Internal Links
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
Alberta Votes 2008 »
- It's 'Ed's Empire' after Alberta election sweep
- Political observers in Alberta are calling it remarkable and opposition politicians are wondering what hit them after Ed Stelmach guided his Conservative party Monday to one of its biggest majorities ever.
- Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned
- As Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Conservatives savour their sweeping election victory, some people are raising a nagging concern: why so few people bothered to vote.
- Albertans elect historic 11th straight Tory government
- Voters in Alberta stuck with tried-and-true blue, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government in Monday's provincial election.
- Political tide turns in Edmonton
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach has proven true to his word, putting the "Ed" back in Edmonton.
- Conservatives' Calgary fortress resists change
- The Progressive Conservatives' fortress in Calgary stood strong as the party took 18 of the city's 23 ridings Monday night.
Riding Profiles
More Alberta Votes Headlines »
- It's 'Ed's Empire' after Alberta election sweep
- Political observers in Alberta are calling it remarkable and opposition politicians are wondering what hit them after Ed Stelmach guided his Conservative party Monday to one of its biggest majorities ever.
- Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned
- As Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Conservatives savour their sweeping election victory, some people are raising a nagging concern: why so few people bothered to vote.
- Albertans elect historic 11th straight Tory government
- Voters in Alberta stuck with tried-and-true blue, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government in Monday's provincial election.
- Political tide turns in Edmonton
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach has proven true to his word, putting the "Ed" back in Edmonton.
- Conservatives' Calgary fortress resists change
- The Progressive Conservatives' fortress in Calgary stood strong as the party took 18 of the city's 23 ridings Monday night.
