Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in our agreement with the federal government, we've agreed to use the funding from them to reduce the cost of childcare by on average 50 percent. And we understand that the cost of childcare varies depending on what people are charging. There is a number built into the federal agreement which -- so we can handle a 2.3 percent increase and not have to take from any other pots of money. The timing is not great right now because as the Member mentioned, the price of everything is going up. We're seeing, you know, inflation like we haven't seen before. So what we are willing to do is work with childcare providers to ensure that if they're proposing an increase above that 2.3 percent, that it is something that is justifiable. And while I say that, I'll preface it by saying that most childcare providers are, you know, only putting forward increases that are justifiable. There have been some instances where we've seen, you know, increases of 20, 30 percent proposed for this month, even retroactive a month, and it's -- you know, it coincides with this new money that's flowing -- that's supposed to be flowing to parents. And so if we have a childcare provider increasing their rates by 30 percent when we're trying to reduce rates by 50 percent, that causes some problems because that will take money away from some of the other efforts that we need to put forth, such as increasing wages for early learning and childcare providers. So we want to ensure that parents are getting this money in their pocket, and we want to ensure that the childcare providers are not being unduly burdened. So we are providing them with additional funding because we understand there's additional reporting. And the 2.3 percent increase is seen as reasonable, and we -- you know, we believe that most operators are charging what they need to charge at any given time. And there are increases that businesses need to make along the way but when we're talking about 20, 30 percent increases, there are definitely some questions and we likely can't accommodate those types of increases, and we don't want parents to have to pay those increases as well. Thank you.
R.J. Simpson on Question 1051-19(2): Child Care Contribution Agreements
In the Legislative Assembly on March 29th, 2022. See this statement in context.
Question 1051-19(2): Child Care Contribution Agreements
Oral Questions
March 29th, 2022
Page 4117
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