To the best of my knowledge (someone feel free to correct me if they KNOW I am wrong, lol) a private provider cannot accept subsidied families in Alberta either. If you work with an agency, or are accredited that way, then what that means is that the government will pay a portion of the fees. There is a lot of paperwork involved, and usually the government pays you directly as the provider, but sometimes they pay the parents, sometimes a combination of, and sometimes you get some money from the government and some from the parents separately. That is my understanding, based on what our local agency told me.