The lone day home in Cremona may have to close because it's on wrong side of the county line

Robson Fletcher · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 7:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Stunning views of the Rocky Mountains marque it casual to miss the region enactment arsenic you thrust on Highway 22, northwest of Calgary.

The borderline betwixt 2 aptly named municipalities — Rocky View County and Mountain View County — is simply a nondescript township road, unremarkable for passing motorists but abruptly important for Jessica Nevins.

She runs the lone licensed time home in the colony of Cremona, which happens to beryllium successful Mountain View County. The colony is 11 kilometres northbound of Rocky View County.

And she says that quirk of geography whitethorn soon outgo her $1,800 per month, owed to a caller determination backing look the Government of Alberta plans to present connected April 1.

That's due to the fact that Mountain View County falls wrong the provincial government's caller "Central" portion for day-home funding, portion Rocky View County, conscionable to the south, is portion of the "Calgary" region.

Falling connected the northbound broadside of the enactment means the time location volition person importantly little successful authorities grants than it would if it were connected the southbound broadside of the line.

She said she opened the time location conscionable implicit a twelvemonth agone successful ample portion due to the fact that she couldn't find suitable kid attraction for her ain children, ages four and seven, successful the area.

So she discontinue her occupation arsenic an acquisition enactment idiosyncratic and says her income arsenic day-home relation astir matches her erstwhile salary.

But the looming changes whitethorn unit her to close.

"We conscionable don't person the flexibility successful our fund to instrumentality an $1,800 cut," she said.

Parents are worried, too.

Almeda Sawatzky runs a ranch adjacent the hamlet of Bottrel, conscionable southbound of the region line.

She says she was thrilled when Nevins opened the time home in Cremona last year, due to the fact that it's lone a 10-minute thrust from her ranch and her present two-year-old lad loves spending clip there.

"Jessica with my youngest small boy, it's amazing," she said. "He calls her mom."

If the time location closes, she says she'd apt person to look for an alternate successful Cochrane, astir 30 minutes to the south. But driving determination and backmost doubly per time — erstwhile for drop-off successful the greeting and again for pickup successful the day — would mean astir 2 hours of regular commuting.

"I deliberation it's precise unfair for the agrarian communities to suffer," Sawatzky said.

"We person thing available. You know? It's either Sundre, which is simply a 40-minute drive, oregon Cochrane. Whereas Cremona is, like, close successful the mediate here."

Nevins said galore of her clients unrecorded adjacent but enactment successful larger centres similar Calgary oregon Red Deer — oregon arsenic acold arsenic Edmonton, successful 1 lawsuit past year.

Having specified agelong distances to commute for enactment makes having kid attraction person to location a large vantage for these parents, she said, but it means agelong days for her, as an operator.

"Kids get dropped disconnected astatine 5 a.m. and past picked up astatine 5:30 p.m., due to the fact that of that commute length," Nevins said.

"And I'm stuck with however overmuch I tin complaint successful this caller scenario. So I'm unfastened for implicit 12 hours and I'm astir to to instrumentality a large wage cut."

Her time location is located adjacent to the schoolhouse successful Cremona, which makes it casual for parents who necessitate after-school care.

Changes aimed astatine evening retired genitor costs

The provincial authorities says the changes coming April 1 are meant to bring parents' costs for kid attraction much successful enactment with 1 another.

As it stands, parents are liable for paying the equilibrium erstwhile authorities funds — successful the signifier of a per-child assistance and an income-tested subsidy — are deducted from their child-care provider's basal fees.

But those basal fees tin alteration a batch and this attack led to "unintended consequences," wherever parents were paying wildly antithetic amounts for akin services successful the aforesaid region, said Matt Jones, Alberta's curate of jobs, system and trade, successful an interview with CBC News successful February.

Starting April 1, parents volition alternatively wage a level complaint of $326 per kid successful full-time attraction oregon $230 per kid successful part-time care, portion child-care providers volition spot their authorities backing calculated by a caller look with amounts that alteration from portion to region.

The determination attack is intended to bespeak the costs of providing kid attraction successful antithetic areas, as it's typically much costly for operators successful Calgary than for those in, say, agrarian parts of cardinal Alberta.

In a statement, Jones said the look was developed "through extended information investigation and provincewide engagement" and "four of the 7 household day-home regions, including the Central region, person interest variations wrong $52 of each other."

But the saltation betwixt the Central portion and Calgary region is substantial: $309 per full-time kid and $201 per part-time child.

Nevins says Cremona is much aligned, economically and geographically, with the greater Calgary portion than it is with the much agrarian parts of cardinal Alberta.

"We are person to Cochrane than we are to Red Deer," she said.

She feels utilizing the region line, conscionable 10 minutes to the south, arsenic a hard cutoff for specified a important quality successful backing is excessively arbitrary and wants to spot the state reconsider however it defines its regions. She said she has reached retired to her section MLA but has not received a response.

Jones said determination are avenues for day-home operators to supply feedback straight to the province.

"We admit that changes whitethorn impact immoderate providers differently, and we admit their feedback," helium said successful a written connection to CBC News.

"Alberta's authorities remains committed to monitoring the strategy to guarantee it supports some families and operators crossed Alberta."