Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes his way to a press briefing at the Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto, on Oct. 15.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government will negotiate with Ottawa on a $10-a-day child-care agreement but won’t strike a “bad deal” that leaves the province on the hook for billions.
Mr. Ford faced pushback on Tuesday as to why Ontario is still holding out on an affordable child-care deal with Ottawa, a day after Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced his government had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fund thousands of lower-cost daycare spaces.
The Ontario Premier said Ottawa’s current proposal “shortchanges” his province and that he wants the same treatment as Quebec and Alberta, suggesting those jurisdictions received funding with fewer conditions attached. But federal officials say they’ve yet to receive any formal documentation from Ontario to begin formal talks – and the province will receive equitable funding to others.
“I’m just not going to make a deal for the sake of making a deal,” Mr. Ford said Tuesday, at an unrelated announcement about funding to combat guns and gang violence.
“I’m not going to get the short end of the stick on this. I have to represent the people of Ontario. The worst thing we could do, the worst, is sign a bad deal. And it’s going to cost us a fortune. And while everyone else, you know, has a good deal. So we’ll get there.”
Mr. Ford urged municipalities to work with his government and not seek to strike individual deals with Ottawa. He said he’s also discussed the matter with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, and he believes a deal will eventually be reached.
The federal Liberal government’s $30-billion, five-year child-care plan promises to cut fees to an average of $10 a day across the country and trim them in half by next year. Ottawa has offered Ontario $10.2-billion, based on the province’s population. But Ontario says it should get more, because it spends $3.6-billion on full-day kindergarten for about 260,000 four- and five-year-olds.
Karina Gould, the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, said this week that Ontario has still not submitted a detailed plan on how it would spend federal funds after Ottawa sent a term sheet to all provinces and territories seven months ago.
Mikaela Harrison, a spokeswoman for Ms. Gould, said Ontario’s share of the funding is consistent with other jurisdictions, and also accounts for the higher child-care fees that parents pay in Ontario.
“We look forward to kick-starting negotiations once Ontario joins us at the table. Over the past seven months, we have struck agreements with Conservative, NDP and Liberal governments, by working in good faith,” she said.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said this week the deal, as presented, would mean Ontario would not get to $10-a-day child care by even the fifth year of the agreement, and pushed for a longer-term commitment from the federal government.
Mr. Lecce sent Ms. Gould a letter Friday with Ontario’s “core priorities,” and will be sending updated modelling to the federal government. Ontario officials said the province would only get to $21 a day by 2025, although the modelling won’t be released publicly.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath on Tuesday accused the province of lacking the urgency needed to get a deal done, noting child care can sometimes cost more than a monthly mortgage.
“Why has Ontario still not done its homework, leaving families to wait even longer? Why do we not have that child-care deal right now?” she told the Legislature.
Carolyn Ferns, public policy co-ordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, an advocacy group for public and non-profit child care, said Mr. Ford’s argument that Ontario isn’t getting enough money per capita has been “debunked,” as has the need for extra funding for full-day kindergarten.
“It’s never been the intention of this money to pay provinces off for programs that we already have in place. It’s to lower child-care fees for families and to increase spaces,” she said. “It feels like they’re playing politics with this.”
But the Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario, which represents both commercial and not-for-profit licensed child-care programs, urged the province to take its time in negotiations. About a quarter of licensed child-care spaces are run as small businesses, and Ontario is the only province that supplies almost all provincial funding for licensed child care to municipalities instead of directly to providers, the association said.
“The Ontario system is diverse and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ may not work in Ontario,” spokeswoman Jenny Jackson said.
The federal government has completed bilateral $10-a-day care deals with nine provinces and territories. Ontario, New Brunswick, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have yet to sign on.
With a report from The Canadian Press
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