New Alberta Childcare Subsidy & Affordability Grant Guide

If you have your child in a Calgary daycare or anywhere in Alberta really this guide will help you navigate the new Alberta affordability grant and subsidy. This new grant and subsidy structure for daycares is exactly that… new.

Information is changing all the time so please use this guide as a helping hand and not the definitive answer to everything. To get the latest information please go to Federal-provincial child care agreement | Alberta.ca

And one last caveat. All this information is good as of the writing on this guide. The government is changing things often so please go to the site mentioned above for the latest information and funding amounts.

What Changed? $10 Bucks A Day?

Lots has changed in the world Calgary daycare world. Actually, the Alberta childcare world and it has to do with money paid out to families. The goal for the government is to get daycare fees down to around $10-25$ a day over 5 years.

They have done this in 2 steps. Families that are eligible will get a subsidy payment to offset their fee. Daycares will also get a grant from the government to lower fees per child. These funds together will lower most Calgary family’s daycare fees considerably.

The Big Question… How Much Will I Save on Daycare Costs?

A great question and one we get asked ALL the time. The daycare funding is based off of a few criteria. They are age of your child, income level and how many hours your child attends a Calgary daycare.

If you follow along this guide we will get to the answer of how much you will pay for daycare. We’ll do this step by step so we don’t miss anything.

Step 1 – Getting Ready & The Alberta Affordability Grant

Get yourself a pen and paper. Or open Notepad/Memo pad. Also get a calculator or open the calculator app on your computer. Once you have everything ready, let’s dive in.

Let’s start with how much of the daycare affordability grant you will receive. Look at the picture below.

For Calgary daycares the top 3 rows are important. If you child is going to daycare full-time (100 hours plus) or 4-5 days a week. Then row one is your row.

If your child is going to daycare part-time (50-99 hours) or 2-3 days a week. Then you are row 2.

If your child is in overnight care then your row 3.

This is a blog about daycares in the Calgary area but if you’re in a family day home or want your child in one you would just pick the correct row for the amount of attendance for your child.

Okay. We got the row down. Now the column. Just pick the column with your child’s age. That’s it. Once you have both you can slide over the right box.

Here’s a quick example: My child is 4 years old. She will go to daycare 2 days a week. The grant that my family would receive would be $225 a month. Write that down.

Step 2 – Subsidy Anyone?

Now we will calculate the new subsidy amounts. Same as above; look at the picture below.

Full-Time Attendance (100 Hours Plus, 4-5 days a week)

This number can be more complicated if you’re part-time. But we’ll get to that. Let’s assume you’re child is going full-time (100 hours plus, 4-5 days a week). Find your combined household income level before taxes. Then slide over and that’s your grant funding. Write that number down.

In this example if we had a combined household income of $105,000. Our subsidy amount would be $266.00.

Part-Time Attendance (50-99 hours, 2-3 days a week)

If you’re part-time (50-99 hours, 2-3 days a week) then you’ll have to use your calculator. You ‘ll have to guess a bit here. Estimate how many hours a day your child will attend daycare and how many days a week. This is an average.

Now you multiply those 2 numbers to get the monthly hours your child will attend. Take the number and make it a percentage. Write it down.

Find your combined, pre-tax household income on the left column. Slide to the right. Get your funding amount. Now multiply that number by the percentage you wrote down. That is your subsidy. Write that down.

Example (Cause we need it! This got complicated): Let’s say my combined household income is $105,000. My child will attend 2 days a week. He will go for 7 hours a day.

Income Level: $105,000

Subsidy Amount for Income Level: $266.00

Monthly Hours My Child Will Attend: 2 X 7 = 14. Then 14 X 52 = 728. Then 728 / 12 = 60 Hours

Let me explain the hours calculation. 2 days per week multiplied by 7 hours a day is 14 hours a week. 14 hours a week multiplied by 52 weeks gives us 728 hours a year. We want the monthly hours so we divide 728 hours a year by 12 months. Here’s an easier way to look at it…

Days attending daycare X hours there per day = Hours per week

Hours per week X 52 weeks in a year = Hours per year

Hours per year divided by 12 months in a year = Hours per month

Lastly we have to take the monthly hours. Which is 60 in this example. Change it to a percentage. Just put a % at the end. Ours would be 60%. Now just multiply that by the subsidy amount we figure out above. Which in our example here is $266.00 cause we make a household income of $105,000.

Last math thing I promise. $266.00 X 60% = $159.60. Let’s write that down.

Also remember if your daycare closes for a week over holidays or other times. Try to take that into account for the 52 weeks number. If your daycare closes for an average of 2 weeks. Just multiply by 50 instead of 52. Again this is an average.

Step 3 – Putting All This Together, Finally!

Find out how much daycare tuition is for the amount of days you will be attending. Let’s assume $1000 a month for full-time. We just take $1000 – $225 – $266 = $509.00.

In our scenario for a full-time 4 year old we would pay $509.00 a month for daycare enrollment.

When and How Will This Daycare Funding Be Available?

Good news! The funding is available as of you reading this guide. January 1, 2022.

Bad News! The government is working out the kinks and issues with the new system so the first part of the year will be less then smooth. If you’re reading this in 2023 then you have nothing to worry about and I hope that Flames won the cup, finally.

Every Calgary daycare will lower fees in the best way they see fit. 2000 Days Daycare School will apply the grant and subsidy directly to the daycare tuition amount and just charge the balance.

Keep in mind that this is a brand new system for daycare funding in Canada and Alberta. It could change in many ways. Increase? Decrease? Wiped all together? We do know that there is enough funding for 5 years. You should be good til then.

I have tried to make this guide as simple and educational as possible. But If you have any questions or concerns then please email us at [email protected].