How much does home care cost in Calgary? Ask ten providers and most will offer a callback instead of a number. We think that is backwards, so here is the straight answer: what our care costs per hour, what changes the total for your family, the three ways the price comes down, and the charges to watch for in any quote that looks cheaper than it is.
The figures on this page are our published rates, drawn live from our pricing page, so they are always the current ones. Work out your own week with the estimator there rather than from a figure in an article; it is built for exactly that.
The hourly rate, published
Alberta Maple Care charges $37.50 per hour for daytime care and $39 per hour overnight. One rate covers every daytime service: personal care, companionship, homemaking, respite, medication reminders, escorts to appointments. There is no assessment fee, no package you have to buy and no long lock-in contract. Visits are three hours as standard; shorter visits are sometimes possible when we can pair yours with others nearby, so ask.
Those rates apply within Calgary city limits. For homes outside the boundary, in Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere, Banff, Canmore or Strathmore, the rate is confirmed case by case before care begins, so there is never a surprise on the first invoice.
What actually changes the number
Home care is priced by the hour, so the real question is how many hours a week your family needs and when. Four things move the total:
- Hours per week. A few mornings a week, every weekday, daily support and overnight cover are the four patterns families choose most, and they sit at very different totals. The pricing page shows each pattern and lets you set your own hours.
- Day or night. Overnight care is a different rate because someone is awake and present through the night, for wandering, falls risk or end-of-life comfort.
- Visit length. Three-hour visits are the standard unit. If what you need fits in a shorter visit, ask; where we can combine it with other visits in your area, we often can.
- Funding. This is the one that changes the picture most, and it is the next section.
Three honest ways the price comes down
1. CDHCI-funded hours
If an Assisted Living Alberta case manager assesses your family member and approves home care hours, Client Directed Home Care Invoicing (CDHCI) lets you choose your provider for those hours, and Alberta Maple Care is a registered CDHCI provider. We bill Alberta Blue Cross directly for each approved hour; Alberta Blue Cross pays $35.03 of it and you pay the balance. At our rates that balance is $2.47 per approved daytime hour and $3.97 per approved overnight hour. The program’s rate is set by Alberta Blue Cross and changes over time, and the number of hours is decided only by your case manager; nobody, including us, can estimate it for you.
Two cautions. Approved hours are heavily subsidized, but they are not free. And the subsidy applies only to approved hours for the services in your care plan (personal care, homemaking alongside it, and respite); anything beyond that is private care at the published rate. How to get assessed and how the paperwork works is walked through, step by step, in our CDHCI application guide, and the CDHCI page has a one-minute eligibility check.
2. Many approved hours
Clients with 100+ approved CDHCI hours a month may qualify for $0 out-of-pocket on those hours, case by case, discussed with our intake officer at intake. It is not a blanket promise and we will not make it one; it depends on the approval you hold. Families moving from an assigned (Type 2) agency have their own offer, with its own terms, on the switching page.
3. An affordability assessment
Paying privately and stretched? Our social worker conducts an affordability assessment, and families who qualify receive reduced fees. Ask about it on the first call; it costs nothing to be assessed.
What a cheaper quote may be hiding
An hourly rate is only the start of a home care bill. Before you compare two providers, ask each one the same questions, because the differences live in the answers:
- Is there a minimum visit length or a call-out charge, and how long is it?
- Is travel time or mileage billed?
- Is there a premium on statutory holidays, evenings or weekends?
- What does a late change or a cancellation cost?
- Is there an assessment or set-up fee, and is there a contract term?
- Will the invoice match a written care plan, line by line?
These matter twice over if any of your hours are CDHCI-funded, because the program never pays for them. Its client handbook is explicit: statutory-holiday surcharges, overtime, vacation pay, mileage, travel time, late fees, cancellation fees, supplies, equipment and minimum call-out time beyond the approved care are not covered, and the part of a rate above the program rate is yours to pay. Every item on that list a provider charges lands on your invoice. A flat published rate, with the extras simply not there, is the cheapest kind of simple.
What you are paying for
The rate is not just a caregiver’s time. It includes a care plan written and supervised by a Registered Nurse rather than a schedule alone; consistent, matched caregivers, so the same faces come visit after visit; coordination with your family, your public home care visits, your physician and your pharmacy; invoices where every line matches the plan; and, where you qualify, the CDHCI paperwork and direct billing to Alberta Blue Cross, so there is nothing for you to claim. What a caregiver does on a visit, and what is booked separately, is laid out on what your caregiver does.
Other ways families pay
CDHCI is the funding most Calgary families use, but it is not the only one. Eligible veterans may have home care funded through the Veterans Independence Program, administered by Medavie Blue Cross. Some private and group health plans include home care or attendant-care benefits. Eligible attendant-care and medical expenses may qualify for federal tax credits; that is general information, not tax advice, and a tax professional can confirm what applies to you. All of it, including Self-Managed Care and the public home care layer, is set out in Ways to pay for home care in Alberta.
Get a number for your own week
Open the pricing page, pick the pattern closest to yours, set the hours and the split between funded and private hours, and the estimator shows your weekly figure at today’s rates. Then book a free visit: a nurse comes to you, looks at the whole situation and tells you honestly which hours are worth paying for and which you can keep doing yourselves. No cost, no obligation, and we reply to every enquiry within one business day. Or call and ask the price out loud; we will tell you.
Sources
- Alberta Health Services, Client Directed Home Care Invoicing — Client Handbook (August 2024): what the program does and does not pay for.
- Alberta Blue Cross, provider bulletin on the CDHCI program (September 2026): the hourly rate effective 1 October 2026 and its application to every service, weekends and statutory holidays included.
- Alberta Maple Care, published rates and the week estimator; rates shown on this page are drawn from the same setting, so the two can never disagree.