Home daycares struggling as subsidized competition and federal program squeeze providers

Calgary home daycare operator Linda Herbert Gilmet has spent more than $1,000 this year advertising her six-spot facility. Licensed, educated, with 34 years of experience, she once had a waiting list. Now two spots sit empty — soon to be four when kids head back to school in September.

Herbert Gilmet charges $15 a day, matching Alberta's government-subsidized flat rate. Yet she can't fill her spaces. She's not alone. Home childcare providers across Canada say the business is collapsing despite widespread reports of childcare shortages and long waitlists for parents.

Many point to the federal Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care plan — the "$10-a-day child-care program" — as a key pressure. Herbert Gilmet, who participates in the program, says she's losing clients to larger centres offering free months and gift cards to attract families. Competing against subsidized operations while maintaining thin profit margins has become untenable.

The trend predates the federal program. Home-based care's share of Canada's childcare spaces has shrunk dramatically: from 15 per cent in 2010 to about 8 per cent by 2025, according to the non-profit Childcare Resource and Research Unit of Canada. Statistics Canada reports similar declines.

University of Manitoba professor Susan Prentice, who studies childcare systems, said the future of family home care in Canada remains uncertain. "The actual future of family home child care in Canada, I think, is one that is a bit of an open question right now," she said.

Employment and Social Development Canada said in a statement that federal funding "predominantly supports" non-profit daycare centres, like the YMCA or community centres, as well as home providers — but distribution decisions rest with provinces and territories. "The Government of Canada is actively working with all provinces and territories to create new spaces where they are needed most, get parents off waitlists, provide kids with a great start in life — and support the essential workforce that makes this all possible," a spokesperson wrote.