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.

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.