Carter Meldrum is a child who will be in day care soon. 

Childcare is about to get cheaper.

At least in a few choice daycares across the province.

The government is fulfilling part of its promise by allowing 18 daycares across the province to provide daycare for only $25 a day.

This works out to around $500 a month which is a lot cheaper than other provinces.

Keira Meldrum works and lives in Elkford, British Columbia, she is also the mother of a 20-month-old.

“We pay a minimum $60 per day here, average is $66 plus,” said Meldrum.

Almost triple what people here in Alberta will pay when the pilot project goes through.
There are only 18 day cares that are part of the pilot project.

According to Living in Alberta, Health Edition, “(the) average child care costs for licensed daycare in Alberta range from $950 – $1,200/month.”

While the average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment here in Lethbridge in 2012 was $862.

Daycare is more expensive than rent in some cases, where you can rent a three-bedroom basement suite for $1250, working out cheaper per person than that of daycare.

Meagan Wickstrom has a six-year-old daughter, who was in daycare when she was a toddler.

Wickstrom thinks the lower cost of daycare would be beneficial to all those with children in daycare, as long as it doesn’t affect the quality of the care.

“Even when I had Alexa in daycare with subsidy it was taking more than I could afford out of my pocket. If they make a way to lower that cost for families I think it’s wonderful, as long as it doesn’t affect the quality of care, food, and education given to the kids,” said Wickstrom.

Lethbridge College has a daycare located on campus, located just off centre core.

Cost for the Hands On Early Learning Center depends on if the child requires full-time or part-time care.

Full-time care is considered 100 hours or more per month.

Anything less than 100 hours is charged an hourly rate and the fees are set in August of each year.

The daycare runs from Monday to Friday and opens at 7:45 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m.

According to the Lethbridge College website, the Hands On Early Learning Center “provides 40 accredited spaces, primarily for the care of children of Lethbridge College students (and staff members if space is available) from 19 months to school age. Parents should apply early for a spot as there is a waiting list.”

The government of Alberta will be accepting applications to become an Early Learning and Child Care Centre until Jan. 20, 2017.

This is the first step toward $25-per-day child care.