Question Period Note: EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE

What is the federal government doing to support early learning and child care?

• The Government of Canada is making a transformative investment of over $27 billion over five years 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.

• As part of these investments, the Government of Canada is working with provinces and territories to reduce child care fees to an average of $10-a-day and create 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.

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 is making 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.

Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreements have been signed with all provinces and territories, including an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec, where prices are already affordable through its well-established system. Fee reductions have already been announced in every jurisdiction outside of Quebec and Yukon, where fees were already $10-a-day or less.

Eight PTs have achieved $10-a-day or less regulated child care as of August 2024
Province/Territory Fee reductions to date
(as of August 2024)
Newfoundland and Labrador $10-a-day (fixed)
Prince Edward Island $10-a-day (fixed)
Nova Scotia 50% (average)
New Brunswick 50% (average)
Quebec Below $10-a-day prior to the agreement
Ontario 50% (average)
Manitoba $10-a-day (fixed)
Saskatchewan $10-a-day (fixed)
Alberta $15-a-day (average)
British Columbia 50% (average)
Yukon $10-a-day prior to the agreement
Northwest Territories $10-a-day (average)

Nunavut $10-a-day (fixed) Footnote: On August 15, 2024, Ontario announced that starting in January 2025, parent fees will be capped at $22 per day for children under the age of six in Canada-wide ELCC programs. According to Ontario’s public information, once this new fee cap is implemented, Ontario will have reduced parent fees in Canada-wide ELCC spaces by an average of 59 per cent compared to 2020 levels.

Up to $14,300 in annual savings for families in regulated child care across Canada
Province/Territory Estimated 2024 annual Savings per Child (Gross, Annual)
NL Savings of up to $6,300 per child
PEI Savings of up to $4,170 per child
NS Savings of up to $6,000 per child
NB Savings of up to $3,600 per child
QC Under its asymmetrical agreement, Quebec identified the creation of more than 30,000 new child care spaces by March 2026 as a priority. This includes the close to 20,500 additional subsidized spaces already created since the launch of the “Grand chantier pour les familles” in October 2021.
ON Savings of up to $8,500 per child
MB Savings of up to $2,610 per child
SK Savings of up to $6,900 per child
AB Savings of up to $13,700 per child (2024)
BC Savings of up to $6,600 per child
NU Savings of up to $14,300 per child
NT Savings of up to $9,120 per child
YT
Savings of up to $8,400 per child

As of August 2024, provinces and territories had announced plans to create over 120,000 new affordable spaces across the country. Families of over 750,000 children are already benefiting from high-quality child care.
Nearly 60,000 spaces have been created and operationalized by PTs
Province/Territory Number of Spaces Created in fiscal year 2021/2022 per PT Annual Reports (Canada-wide funding) Number of Spaces Created in fiscal year 2022/2023 per PT Annual Reports (Canada-wide funding) Total Number of Spaces Created since 2021/2022
Newfoundland and Labrador 109 N/A 109
Prince Edward Island -- 459 459
Nova Scotia 0 1,691 1,691
New Brunswick 301 791 1,092
Quebec -- -- --
Ontario No report 25,500 25,500
Manitoba 1,136 563 1,699
Saskatchewan 2,446 2,771 5,217
Alberta 3,729 9,926 13,655
British Columbia -- 10,000 10,000
Yukon 129 165 294
Northwest Territories 70 N/A 70
Nunavut 6 26 32
Annual Total 7,926 51,892 59,818

Between 2021-2022 and 2025-2026, the government has committed to provide provinces and territories with over $27B in funding to support early learning and child care
• Newfoundland and Labrador: $306,043,402
• Prince Edward Island: $117,717,269
• Nova Scotia: $604,925,751
• New Brunswick: $491,877,267
• Quebec: $5,963,537,083
• Ontario: $10,234,889,898
• Manitoba: $1,200,675,866
• Saskatchewan: $1,099,458,971
• Alberta: $3,797,165,586
• British Columbia: $3,211,683,786
• Nunavut: $66,109,076
• Northwest Territories: $51,147,760
• Yukon: $41,691,514 Footnote: Estimated savings for BC, AB, SK, ON, NB, PEI, NS, NL, and NT are provincial and territorial estimates. Remaining savings calculations (MB, YT, and NU) are Employment and Social Development Canada estimates and are illustrative only. All estimates are relative to 2019 levels unless updated data is provided by provinces and territories. All estimates are based on out-of-pocket parent fees excluding amounts that would be recovered through provincial/territorial tax credits or the federal child care expense deduction at tax time, or changes to provincial/territorial or federal benefits as a result of lower child care expenses. Actual savings for families will vary based on factors such as actual fees paid prior to reductions. Provincial and territorial methodologies and data for calculating estimated savings may vary.
The Government of Canada has entered into an asymmetrical agreement with the province of Quebec that will allow for further improvements to its early learning and child care system, where parents with a subsidized, reduced contribution space already pay a single fee of less than $10-a-day.
On August 15, 2024, Ontario announced that starting in January 2025, parent fees will be capped at $22 per day for children under the age of six in Canada-wide ELCC programs. According to the province, savings per child could be up to approximately $18,640/year.in Toronto. ESDC officials are working to review and assess those savings to get a better understanding for the whole province. Footnote: 5 Spaces created are defined as the number of spaces PTs report through their Annual Progress Reports as “created”. Some PTs may report these spaces as “net-new spaces” where the number of spaces created is net of spaces lost in a year. PTs reported space creation figures are subject to change as PTs release or update Annual Reports with retroactive adjustments.
While Yukon created 201 spaces in 2022-2023, as a result of forced closures, there were 165 net spaces created.

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