Question Period Note: CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES’ REPORT ON “CHILD CARE DESERTS”

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released a report claiming nearly half of Canadian children young than kindergarten age live in “child care deserts” – areas with a serious shortage of available licensed care. What is the government doing to address this problem?

The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring families in Canada have access to affordable child care, no matter where they live.

That is why Budget 2021 announced close to $30 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

Through the Canada-wide agreements with provinces and territories, over 50,000 new spaces have been announced to date. That number will grow to 250,000 by March 2026.

Budget 2022 also announced $625 million to enable provinces and territories to make additional child care infrastructure investments.

As part of Budget 2016 and Budget 2017, the Government of Canada committed $7.5 billion over 11 years to support and create more high-quality, affordable child care across the country. Since the first agreements were signed in 2017, a significant amount of work has been undertaken across the country. The target of 40,000 affordable child care spaces was achieved and agreements have also increased access to training and professional development for the early childhood workforce.

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 child care 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.

Province/Territory

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

Spaces announced
(as of May 11, 2023)

Newfoundland and Labrador

5,895

600

Prince Edward Island*

452

230

Nova Scotia

9,500

1,500

New Brunswick

3,400

843

Quebec

30,000

n/a

Ontario

76,700 from 2019 levels**

33,000**

Manitoba

23,000

2,809

Saskatchewan

28,000

4,000

Alberta

68,700

5,500

British Columbia

30,000

3,587

Yukon

110

200

Northwest Territories

300

67

Nunavut

238

30

Total

276,295 new spaces

52,366

*PEI’s targets factor in part-time space creation. Numbers were rounded for this table.

**Includes Ontario’s 15,000 spaces created between 2019 and 2021.

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.

The 2021 Mandate Letter for the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development commits to creating 250,000 new child care spaces.

Canada has signed an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec, where prices are already affordable through its well-established system.

To support the implementation of the Canada-wide ELCC system, Budget 2022 has proposed infrastructure funding to enable provinces and territories to make additional child care investments, including the building of new facilities. Budget 2022 proposes to provide $625 million over four years, beginning in 2023-24, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. The new infrastructure funding will also be part of an asymmetrical agreement with Quebec to further enhance its child care system.

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