Parents Upset as U of A Cuts Off Non-Profit Child-Care Centres

Brooklyn Seitz rushes to make her 8 a.m. class. The morning marathon starts much earlier for the fifth-year biological sciences and education major at the University of Alberta. She needs to drop off her one-year-old son at a non-profit daycare on campus.

Seitz chose the non-profit because it offers a 7:30 a.m. drop-off. From there she weaves through university-area traffic to a parkade, then rushes across campus to the eighth floor of the education faculty building.

Once again, just before class starts, she slides into her seat. But that would be no sure thing if her son’s daycare had been located farther away, Seitz said. “It is one of the reasons I have been so grateful for the U of A's child-care centres.”

The on-campus child-care access Seitz and hundreds of other student parents rely on is threatened by what critics say is a confounding policy change by the university’s administration.

In May 2025, without consultation, the university announced it would stop funding its six non-profit affiliated child-care centres, jeopardizing nearly 50 years of community service in what it said was a cost-saving measure.

While the university is cutting funding to non-profit child care, it maintains a corporate membership with Kids & Co., a for-profit multinational conglomerate that operates only off-campus child-care centres. Membership is limited to faculty and staff. Student parents such as Seitz are not eligible. The university has refused to disclose what that arrangement costs.

Parents say paying to attend U of A has become harder as child-care fees, tuition, parking and other university costs have risen.

The university has so far refused to explain to parents why it decided to make a priority of ending funding to its non-profit daycares.

The six non-profit child-care centres shared $298,600 in funding. Of that funding, $90,000 returned to the university through rent.

Three daycare centres are on campus and three are off campus in the nearby university neighbourhoods of Garneau, Windsor Park and McKernan.

The non-profit daycares used the university funding for rent, maintenance and cleaning. Without it, they must scale back programs, reduce service quality and lay off staff. The centres say their long-term future is in doubt.

The funding loss inflicts double harm to the Garneau centre. It must also find a new location because its landlord, Edmonton Public Schools, needs the space to manage increased growth in its schools.

‘My questions have been ignored’

Student Parents on Campus is a student-led group that provides advocacy, resources and community support. It says the university made its decision without any meaningful consultation with student parents and the child-care centres.

Olivia Hart, a parent and the group’s president, is frustrated by the university’s stonewalling.

“All my meeting requests have been rejected, and all my questions have been ignored,” she said.

For Seitz, the university’s decision signals how little it cares about its student parents. There should have been consultation, “rather than a complete termination without any discussion at all with the very demographic that it affects,” she said.

A Kids & Co. corporate membership is not unique to the U of A. The universities of British Columbia, Calgary and Toronto all maintain similar arrangements — with one critical difference. Each uses Kids & Co. only for emergency or priority-access care. None of those universities has cut funding to their own non-profit, campus-affiliated child-care centres.

The U of A has not publicly disclosed the financial terms and usage data for its Kids & Co. corporate membership.

In an emailed statement, the university said it gave the daycares one year’s notice of the January funding cut. It made the decision because of “significant funding constraints stemming from ongoing inflationary pressures and rising costs.”

“We understand the impact this decision has on the child-care centres and the families they serve,” it said.

The university said the funding was not provided as a subsidy to students, faculty or staff who opted to access these daycare spaces. It provided the funding as an incentive for these daycares to set aside a certain number of spots for members of the university community.

“This is one of several cost-saving measures implemented across the institution to ensure our long-term sustainability and has resulted in savings of almost $300,000 annually,” it said.

“The health and wellness of the university community is our top priority. The U of A does offer robust benefits for faculty and staff in their benefits as well as students who parent.”

The university did not address its continuing relationship with Kids & Co.

What other universities provide

Campus child care is vital for Seitz and other student parents.

“My ability to attend classes, complete practicum placements, write tests and even conduct my research work, which is considered like employment at the U of A, is really dependent on having local and reliable child care,” she said.

“If I wasn't able to gain a spot for my son at the campus daycare, I think it would directly affect whether I would be able to succeed at the U of A.”

Professor emeritus Laurie Adkin said the university is “now the only major university in Canada that we know of that no longer provides any support for on-campus child care.”

Adkin used the University Infant and Toddler Centre for her son in the early 2000s and also went through wait-list uncertainty.

In contrast, the University of British Columbia uses its daycare program as a major attraction for student enrolment, Adkin said. UBC recently decided to expand current locations and build new ones, making it one of Canada's largest campus child-care operators.

Hart said UBC’s child-care director recently told her that although the province declined to fund UBC’s daycare expansion, the university will cover the $6.6-million cost.

“Additionally, they also have a mandate... that 40 per cent of their child-care spots be used by student parents, demonstrating that there is significant demand for child-care services on campus,” she said.

The University of Calgary also has maintained its non-profit daycares.

“Both universities operate in the same provincial policy and funding model framework, but U of C maintains agreements with two campus child-care centres,” Adkin said.

There is clear and growing demand for campus child care at the U of A. Of the 331 spots available at its non-profit child-care centres, 70 to 90 per cent are used by university-affiliated families. More than 200 university families are on wait-lists, especially for infant care.

The Tyee obtained an unpublished university report based on a 2024-25 school year survey. Of the 859 responses of parents with one or more children under 18, it found:

• Thirty-five per cent used day care or child care in a private home.
• Sixteen per cent reported being a primary caregiver with only some outside support, a burden significantly more common among undergraduate students.
• Sixty-four per cent reported financial challenges.
• Fifty-three per cent needed unplanned care at least monthly, making academic disruption unavoidable without flexible support.
• Forty-eight per cent reported missing lectures because of caregiving responsibilities, with undergraduates, 66 per cent, significantly more affected than graduate students, 36 per cent.

Looking ahead, Seitz plans to pursue graduate studies and work after she finishes her undergraduate degree.

“I also hope to expand my family one day, and I have definitely found myself wondering what finding child-care spaces for more than one child while attending university would look like,” she said.

“If the loss of funding ultimately affects the availability, affordability or accessibility of child care close to campus, that could have a very real impact on my future plans and my ability to continue balancing school and parenthood.”

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