The Alberta referendum and its childcare implications

Posted on October 1, 2026 by admin

When Alberta votes in a few weeks to survey the public about our status in the nation, there is one issue that is not being fully acknowledged.

It is about who decides how we take care of our children.

When people are only funded to use 3rd party public daycare for their children  and any other care style is not funded, that is a federal bias we are forced to go along with.

Alberta has bravely in the past objected to these restrictions on what to do with federal money for care of our children. Many small independent daycares feel excluded. Many parents at home, parents who use grandma care, parents who take turns with the kids or who use sitters or nannies feel excluded. If equal means equal, then all kids deserve equal funding wherever they are.

This is a chance to say that we want to make our own childcare policy.

A person need not be a separatist to want Alberta to have more say in the childcare policy. This means that on those two items it is good for kids if we vote YES, regardless of what you feel about Alberta separatism.

Here is the wording of those two referendum items:

Ballot question 8

• Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?

Ballot question 9

• Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?

This website may be a useful reference at http://www.equalityandcaregiving.org

Beverley Smith, Calgary