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The province will abandon the early childhood education accreditation process that has been in place for 16 years to cut red tape, according to the Ministry of Children’s Services.

“It really seems like a common-sense way to ensure that childcare operators and child care workers can focus their time supporting kids and families, as opposed to filling out government paperwork,” said Children’s Minister Rebecca Schultz in an interview Friday.

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Wage top-ups for child care workers will no longer be tied to accreditation, but will instead be rolled into the ministry’s licensing program. Because all licensed child-care centres and day homes will receive top-ups, 18,000 workers will qualify to access them, up from 16,000, said Schultz.

Effective April 1, the changes would be announced to providers Monday, said spokeswoman for the ministry Lauren Armstrong.

Adrienne Keller, the chairperson of the governing council of the Alberta Association for the Accreditation of Early Learning and Childcare Services (AELCS) wrote in a social media post Friday that children and families in Alberta have benefitted from the “tremendous work and achievement of AELCS.”