The 4 Wing Military Family Resource Centre Announces $25 per day ($550 per month) Child Care

The 4 Wing Military Family Resource Centre Society (MFRCS) has been selected to become an Early Learning Child Care Centre (ELCC).

The Provincial Government has announced funding for 78 new ELCC Centres across Alberta. The immediate benefits of this funding will lower the costs of child care to $25 per day per child, improve wages and benefits for child care staff, and enhance programming for the children in these new centres.

4 Wing MFRCS has received $670,000 to support vulnerable families in the Cold Lake area for the next year.  This means that the 4 Wing MFRCS will prioritize vulnerable families who need child care to secure or maintain employment upon arriving in Cold Lake, families where one parent is staying home due to the lack of affordable child care, and for new parents that now face child care costs for the first time.

There will also be child care available for extremely vulnerable families in crisis.

The 4 Wing MFRCS Executive Director, Floyd Perras, said, “Becoming an ELCC Centre will change the landscape on many fronts for child care in Cold Lake.”

Wing Commander Col Doyle commented, “This news is extremely positive for not only the 4 Wing MFRCS, and the Wing and Base, but for our community as a whole. It will enable the 4 Wing MFRCS as an organization to expand services and provide the Early Learning Child Care Centre our community needs and deserves. The need for affordable childcare was recognized as extremely important for members of our defence team and the community as a whole, and this funding will surely enhance their quality of life.”

“This is great news for Cold Lake,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “We’re proud of the support that 4 Wing and the MFRCS provide to our community. This new child care funding will benefit local families, ensuring that more people will be able to participate more fully in our economy.”

With this ELCC Centre funding, the 4 Wing MFRCS will now offer $25 per day child care.  Currently, families pay between $32 – $36 per day per child at the 4 Wing MFRCS and this new grant will save families $ 150 – $ 235 per month.  This is a significant financial benefit that will encourage many parents to rejoin the work force.

The funding will also add significant support for the child care staff through increased wages, health and sick time benefits, and staff development.  An improved wage scale for our child care workers will bring our Level 1 workers to $37,000 per year, and our Level 3 workers to $53,000 per year, which provides our child care staff with a competitive wage in an industry where low wages have prevailed for a long time.

Further benefits from the funding include regularly scheduled field trips and enhanced learning opportunities for the children through the Alberta Curriculum Framework “Play, Participation, and Possibilities.”

As a newly chosen ELCC Centre, the 4 Wing MFRCS will continue a long legacy of child care support for the Cold Lake community.

For more information, please contact the 4 Wing MFRCS by calling 780-594-6006 or by visiting the Front Desk.