Does anyone have hired help for your dc???

[MomAwayFromMom]

I am also in Alberta. Actually Alberta has NO laws whatsoever regarding the number of children to caregiver. It doesn't see fit to try and regulate privatized childcare. You can have 90:1 and as long as the parents are comfortable leaving their children in your care you can keep on "collecting". Rediculous, I know, but its true. If you were licensed that would be a different story. You can only have up to 6 children per caregiver, and its 1 under 1, 2 under 2, 3 under 3. But only one in each age bracket, get it? So you can have 1, 1yo; 1,2yo and 1,1yo or 2,2yo; 3, 3yo or 1,3yo and 1,2yo and 1,1yo or; 1,3yo and 2,2yo and 0,1yo or; 3,3yo. Yes it is confusing. I chose to be privatized because the regulations for being lisenced are completely rediculous, IMHO.

Although I have no one working for me and never have and never will, it isn't that difficult to obtain an employee. If you get a family member to work for you you don't have to remit CPP or EI on their behalf, just the income tax. However, that also means that they can not claim EI because they are not paying into it. You can also go the route of paying "casual" cash wages. If you don't need the extra help everyday and therefore only need some one once in a while, you are allowed to pay cash wages and write them off as long as they sign a receipt.

HTH

[Inspired by Reggio]

I am also in Alberta. Actually Alberta has NO laws whatsoever regarding the number of children to caregiver. It doesn't see fit to try and regulate privatized childcare. You can have 90:1 and as long as the parents are comfortable leaving their children in your care you can keep on "collecting". ....

Hmmm ~ according to the Alberta government website anyone caring for '7 or more children' requires a license so it seems they DO regulate private home childcare at least to the extent that you can only care for 6 children or less before you are required to be licensed in some manner?

http://www.child.alberta.ca/home/1159.cfm
A license is required under the Child Care Licensing Act to operate a child care program that provides care for seven or more children except for:

An education program provided under the School Act;

A day camp, vacation camp or other recreational program that operates for less than 12 consecutive weeks;

Supervision of children at a recreational facility, retail centre or other commercial establishment where the parents of the children remain on the premises and are available; or

Private babysitting in a private home for six children or less. The caregiver’s own children are not included in these six..

Approved family day homes are not required to be licensed as they are monitored by the family day home agency.

The Child Care Licensing Regulation sets out the minimum standards that must be met in a licensed child care program to ensure that the health, safety and developmental needs of children are met.

Child and Family Service Authorities (CFSA) licence, monitor and issue enforcement actions. Should you have any questions regarding applying for a child care licence, please contact local Child and Family Services Authority.

[MomAwayFromMom]

Hmmm ~ according to the Alberta government website anyone caring for '7 or more children' requires a license so it seems they DO regulate private home childcare at least to the extent that you can only care for 6 children or less before you are required to be licensed in some manner?

Just a year and a half ago I looked into this in depth though my local licensing office. Those license requirements are, as I was told, for daycare centers or proffessional childcare situations representing themselves as such. I understand that in other provences you don't have such entities as "dayhomes" or "private dayhomes". This is what "shelter" I operate under. I have no official rules that govern my care ratio. Of course that doesnt mean that if I took on 10 kids I wouldn't get into trouble. Im sure somewhere along the line child and family services would come knocking at my door. But this question was about obtaining help. You most certainly can do it that way in Alberta. We are the most entrepreneurial provence.

[giraffe]

Just a year and a half ago I looked into this in depth though my local licensing office. Those license requirements are, as I was told, for daycare centers or proffessional childcare situations representing themselves as such. I understand that in other provences you don't have such entities as "dayhomes" or "private dayhomes". This is what "shelter" I operate under. I have no official rules that govern my care ratio. Of course that doesnt mean that if I took on 10 kids I wouldn't get into trouble. Im sure somewhere along the line child and family services would come knocking at my door. But this question was about obtaining help. You most certainly can do it that way in Alberta. We are the most entrepreneurial provence.

I'm sorry MAFM but I'm pretty sure that Reggio is right.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I'm sorry MAFM but I'm pretty sure that Reggio is right.

Ya I know here in Ontario that there are people who believe that 'unregulated daycare' means there are NO rules at all too ~ this is not the case the minimal rules are THERE that one must follow just as it seems like they are there according to the Alberta website ... so for us we cannot care for more than 5 daycare children under the age of 10 plus our own ~ and even though we are 'unregulated' as business owners we must still follow all city bylaws for zoning and fire codes and so forth or risk fines and issues of being closed down by those agencies ... is just up to the individual business owner to ensure they are following those minimum rules as know one is coming in and 'inspecting' that you are ~ as a business owner it is each persons own due diligence to ensure they are following the rules for their industry or risk it hitting the fan so to speak ... even unregulated if you fined yourself in front of a Civil court judge due to a client suing you you are going to be held to the 'standard of practice of the industry' which is going to include those rules the government deems 'best practice' so it is wise to know them and if you choose not to follow them for whatever reason you need to be confident you can argue to a judge why you did not if a child is injured in your business and they feel that 'rule not being followed' was why

Problem is that violations of the over ratio issue or fire code issues and other rules are 'complaint' based so unless a child is injured and harmed to draw attention to the illegal practice or unless a neighbor or unhappy client lodges a complaint the programs go unchecked ... you hear the news story of 'illegal childcare gets busted' at least once or twice a year in Ontario news but in the meantime lots of illegal providers are able to thrive and it is one of the reason why advocates are pushing to remove the option of 'unregulated childcare' at all in Ontario because sadly too many people are not able to 'self regulate' giving the rest of us who are a bad reputation!