$10 a Day Child Care for Families
Since we introduced our plan for early learning and child care in April, we have worked tirelessly to make agreements with seven provinces and one territory, covering nearly half of children in Canada, to deliver a 50% cut in child care fees next year, and deliver $10 a day care in five years or less.
But Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives want to rip up these agreements. They don’t believe that supporting publicly accessible, affordable, and high-quality child care is important for Canada’s future. Erin O’Toole has refused to commit to a reduction in child care fees, refused to commit to new child care spaces, and refused to commit to hiring new early childhood educators. And the amount of money that the average family will receive through the Conservative’s modest tax credit is smaller, by several magnitudes, than the savings families will see from our plan for $10 a day child care.
| City |
Median annual fee (2020) |
Savings with the Conservatives’ Plan |
Savings with our $10 a day plan |
| Vancouver, British Columbia |
$13,980 |
$2,740 |
$11,376 |
| Edmonton, Alberta |
$12,600 |
$593 |
$9,996 |
| Regina, Saskatchewan |
$10,200 |
$2,992 |
$7,596 |
| Winnipeg, Manitoba |
$7,812 |
$3,499 |
$5,208 |
| Toronto, Ontario |
$22,394 |
$1,084 |
$19,790 |
| Iqaluit, Nunavut |
$16,926 |
$82 |
$14,322 |
| Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |
$12,180 |
$642 |
$9,576 |
| Whitehorse, Yukon |
$11,100 |
$2,075 |
$8,496 |
| Fredericton, New Brunswick |
$10,020 |
$3,337 |
$7,416 |
| Halifax, Nova Scotia |
$11,481 |
$3,158 |
$8,877 |
| Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island |
$8,854 |
$3,479 |
$6,250 |
| St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador |
$11,458 |
$1,793 |
$8,854 |
| Source: Macdonald, D., Families would save more with $10-a-day child care fees.The Monitor. August 27, 2021 |
The fact is, ensuring families have access to early learning and child care is not just a social issue—it is an urgent economic issue. The pandemic has exposed what parents have long known. Without access to affordable child care, parents, mostly mothers, can’t work. This is a universal issue that is resonating across sectors, regions, and income brackets.
Building a publicly funded Canada-wide system of accessible, high-quality early learning and child care will not only support working parents and make life more affordable for families, but it will also create jobs, strengthen our economy, grow the middle class, and give every child in Canada the best possible start in life. Affordable, high-quality child care has the potential to add 240,000 workers to the Canadian workforce. Every dollar invested in early childhood education can generate up to $3 in economic return.
Conservatives want to roll back progress for families. We cannot let Canadian women and children get left behind.
A re-elected Liberal government will:
- Reduce fees for child care by 50% in the next year.
- Deliver $10 a day child care within five years or less.
- Build 250,000 new high-quality child care spaces.
- Hire 40,000 more early childhood educators.
- Finalize agreements with all remaining provinces and territories.
- Work with the province of Quebec to build on its world-class, affordable child care system, improve working conditions for educators, and create more spaces for families.
- Work with Indigenous partners to ensure Indigenous children have access to culturally appropriate, affordable, high-quality early learning and child care.
- Enact federal child care legislation to strengthen and protect a Canada-wide child care system.