Question Period Note: Globe and Mail Article on Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Report

Will most cities in Canada fall short of meeting the federal government’s 50-per-cent cost-reduction target for 2022?

• The Government of Canada has made a transformative investment to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system through bilateral agreements with provinces and territories.

• Nearly all of Canada’s provinces and territories have announced initial child care fee reductions and are on track to meet the 50 per cent reduction by December 2022.

• The Department is closely reviewing the findings included in a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The 2020 Fall Economic Statement announced key early investments to lay the groundwork for a Canada-wide child care system, in partnership with provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples. This includes investments to establish a federal secretariat on early learning and child care; supporting the existing federal Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Secretariat; making the early learning and child care funding announced in Budget 2017 permanent at 2027-2028 levels; providing $420 million in 2021-2022 for the provinces and territories to support the attraction and retention of early childhood educators; and an additional $75 million in 2021-2022 to improve the quality and accessibility of Indigenous child care programs.

Building on investments announced in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of over $27 billion over five years, as part of Budget 2021 to build a Canada-wide early learning and Child Care system with provinces and territories. Combined with other investments including in Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care, up to $30 billion over five years will be provided in support of early learning and child care. Adding previous investments announced since 2015, this means that as of 2025-2026, a minimum of $9.2 billion will be provided every year – permanently – for Early Learning and Child Care and Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care.

The goal is to bring fees for regulated child care down to $10-a-day on average within the next five years. By the end of 2022, the Government is aiming to reduce average fees for regulated early learning and child care by 50 per cent to make it more affordable for families. These targets apply everywhere outside of Quebec which already has an affordable, well-established system, and Yukon which has already achieved a $10-a-day system.

The Government of Canada has signed agreements with every province and territory to deliver a Canada-wide ELCC system. Nearly all of Canada’s provinces and territories have announced initial child care fee reductions to support the affordability goal of the Canada-wide ELCC system. Canada has signed an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec, where prices are already affordable through its well-established system.

On May 10, 2022, the Canadian Policy for Policy Alternatives published a 60-page report assessing which provinces and territories are on track to meeting savings targets (a reduction in fees by 50% on average) by the end of 2022. The Federal Secretariat is completing a review of the paper and methodology.

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