Children's Services Policy

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Countless Alberta families can’t find or can’t afford the child care they need. We have a plan.

Albertans have spoken out with their child care concerns, indicating four key problems:

  • Long wait lists for child care spaces
  • The sector’s difficulty in retaining staff
  • Concerns about the quality of care and
  • Parents struggling to balance the demands of working and raising children.

An Alberta Liberal government will provide child care in this province based on a fundamental commitment to the QUAD principles developed by child care experts: quality, accessibility, universality, and developmental benefits for children in care.

We will have:

  • More high-quality and diverse child care spaces
  • A larger, more stable child care workforce
  • Better support to parents and caregivers

We will work with employers and industry to develop a set of best practices to improve conditions for employees with children, and to increase understanding between employers and parents who work with them.

  • The Alberta Liberal Caucus has, and will continue to, support a Child and Youth Advocate who reports directly to the Legislature, rather than to the Minister for increased accountability and transparency in the system.  The Advocate has to challenge the government, to point to the areas that the Children and Youth in the system have pointed to as insufficient, and this is best done from outside the department where one is not in fear of losing their own job for speaking out.
  • Our caucus is opposed to “outcome-based” supports – we want a system that not only provides adequate assistance to our children and youth in need, but also those professionals who have been involved in providing the assistance. We do not believe in a system that places those in trouble on a scale from ‘uncured’ to ‘cured’ with no flexibility in planning, or funding. 
  • We will address staffing issues within organizations and departments who work with troubled children and youth, and ensure that human services workers in the not-for-profit sector receive the same wages and benefits as their government counterparts. The design of Outcome Based Funding is not conducive to attracting new and well trained professionals to the industry.

 

Children's Services Responses & Questions

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24 November 2010

Children in Care (November 23)

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Children and Youth Services has stated numerous times in this House that budget cuts will not impact the quality of care.

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19 November 2010

Hate Crimes (November 18)

Mr. Hehr: Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Children and Youth Services questioned my motivation for raising the concerns of the Devine family in this Assembly.

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19 November 2010

Child Poverty (November 18)

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The child well-being initiative was launched three years ago in reaction to a dramatic increase in the number of children accessing food banks and housing programs.

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18 November 2010

Hate Crimes (November 17)

Mr. Hehr: Mr. Speaker, I spoke with the Devine family again last night. They assured me that they are comfortable with my raising in this honourable House the issue of the unsavoury actions of the minister’s department.

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17 November 2010

Hate Crimes (November 16)

Mr. Hehr: Mr. Speaker, today happens to be the International Day for Tolerance, so I thought the Minister of Children and Youth Services might tolerate another question regarding answers she gave yesterday regarding the Devine family.

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04 November 2010

Aboriginal Children in Care (November 3)

Mr. Chase: Mr. Speaker, yesterday when I questioned why the government rejected recommendations from the child intervention report that would improve services for aboriginal families, the response was rather defensive.

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03 November 2010

Child Intervention System Review (November 2)

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ministry of children’s services has finally released recommendations from the Child Intervention Review Panel.

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28 October 2010

Daycare and Day Home Regulatory Compliance (October 27)

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Auditor General had some choice words about child care facilities in Alberta: inconsistencies in monitoring and enforcement, documentation was lacking when warnings were given, could not determine if verbal warnings were followed up with remedial actions.

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