Banff piloting program aimed at opening more child

Banff piloting program aimed at opening more child-care spaces

Town offering money to child-care providers to open more home daycares

Banff has just one licensed home daycare. The town hopes a new grant program will help change that.

Town council has approved a two-year pilot program that will provide $5,000 grants to up to 10 new licensed home daycare operators. The town hopes the program will help reduce a child care waitlist of more than 200 families.

"This is very exciting for the Banff community. There are waitlists all over the Bow Valley, but particularly in Banff," said Susan Elson, executive director of Davar Child Care Society, which oversees licensed home daycares in the Bow Valley.

The grants are intended to help offset the costs of opening and running a home daycare. Recipients would get $2,000 when they first open and another $3,000 after 18 months of operation.

The town says applications for the grant will open in the next few weeks.

Elson said the funding is an important first step because it signals the town is serious about expanding licensed home daycare options.

But money alone won't solve the problem, she says.

Landlord and condo board restrictions remain the biggest barrier to opening more home daycares in Banff, Elson said. This barrier is especially significant because so many people in Banff are renters and need their landlord's permission to run a home daycare.

Davar oversees licensed home daycares in Calgary, Airdrie, Canmore and several other Alberta communities.

Elson said the agency does not encounter the same restrictions from landlords in other places.

"We have a number of day homes in Canmore, for example. And it's always been easier for the educators to open their homes in Canmore than the difficulty that we have in Banff," she said.

Home daycares hard to open in Banff

Elson believes many landlords in Banff simply don't know much about the realities of how licensed home daycares operate.

"I think landlords have a misunderstanding about having someone provide child care in the rental property," she said.

Elson said Davar has never received a noise complaint since it began operating licensed home daycares, and said providers regularly operate in condos and other residential buildings in neighbouring communities without issues.

Are home daycares being squeezed out of business?

Jessica LaBonte, who is managing the pilot program for the Town of Banff, said the grants are a tangible way to support people interested in opening licensed home daycares. But she agrees landlord and condo board restrictions also need to be addressed.

She said the town plans to launch an educational campaign to address misconceptions among landlords and condo boards about home daycares.

LaBonte said the biggest misconception is that Parks Canada’s residency requirements prevent people from operating home daycares in Banff. She said that’s not true.

LaBonte said the campaign will also emphasize the role home daycares play in helping parents return to work and strengthen the community.

Families leaving Banff due to lack of child care, says Davar

The pilot program grew out of the town's 2024 child care needs assessment.

The assessment identified a lack of child care as one of the top challenges facing families in Banff and recommended reducing barriers to opening licensed home daycares.

Federal census data shows the share of two-parent families with children in Banff fell from 47 per cent in 2016 to 39 per cent in 2021.

Elson says Davar staff regularly hear from families who have left Banff because they couldn’t find child care, and said improving access would benefit both families and local employers struggling to retain staff.

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"If this is a success, everybody in Banff will reap the rewards," she said.

Michelle McCann is a reporter with CBC Bow Valley. You can reach her at michelle.mccann@cbc.ca.