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 made a transformative investment of close to $27 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and Child Care system with provinces and territories, ensuring all families have access to regulated child care for an average cost of $10-a-day by March 2026.

We have signed agreements with all provinces and territories and are already seeing results.

Nearly half of Canada’s provinces and territories are delivering regulated Child Care for an average of $10-a-day, or less, and the others have reduced parent fees by at least 50%.

If prompted

Canada has signed an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec, which has its own well-established and long-standing affordable system.

If pressed on Child Care centres destroyed by wild fires

The Government of Canada will continue to work with provincial and territorial governments to help citizens who have been affected by wildfires and other natural disasters.

For example, in the Northwest Territories, federal funding is helping to support Child Care providers, parents and educators impacted by the wildfires. This support will allow families some financial relief while supporting the retention of staff who will continue to receive their wages during this time.
If pressed on New Brunswick Policy 901

The Government of Canada is investing more than $491 million over five years to support the growth of high-quality, affordable, and flexible child care in New Brunswick.

Last year, the province attained an average 50% reduction in regulated child care fees across the province, and in May of this year announced it was partnering with operators in 24 communities to create more than 600 new spaces. Mister Speaker, we applaud these results and we will continue to support families and children across Canada.

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.

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 they already had $10/day or lower fees.

Province/Territory

Fee reductions to date

(as of August 30, 2023)

Space creation commitments in Canada-wide ELCC agreements by end of 2025-2026

Newfoundland and Labrador

$10-a-day

5,895

Prince Edward Island*

50%

452

Nova Scotia

50%

9,500

New Brunswick

50%

3,400

Quebec

n/a

30,000

Ontario

50%

76,700 from 2019 levels**

Manitoba

$10-a-day

23,000

Saskatchewan

$10-a-day

28,000

Alberta

50%

68,700

British Columbia

50%

30,000

Yukon

$10-a-day

110

Northwest Territories

60%

300

Nunavut

$10-a-day

238

Total

n/a

276,295 new spaces

*PEI’s targets factor in part-time space creation. Numbers were rounded for this table. The space creation number is subject to 2023-2026 Action Plan approval.

**This number is under review.

Nearly $9B in funding under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system investments has been provided to provinces and territories as of September 5, 2023:

Newfoundland and Labrador: $60,759,875

Nova Scotia: $172,199,957

Prince Edward Island: $33,822,563

New Brunswick: $141,020,264

Quebec: $2,277,448,683

Ontario: $3,818,520,036

Manitoba: $ 445,799,559

Saskatchewan: $286,650,584

Alberta: $1,014,030,285

British Columbia: $890,638,326

Yukon: $12,912,740

Northwest Territories: $21,182,485

Nunavut: $27,363,653

None