Children at the Blessed Chiara Badano Child Care Centre in Stouffville, Ont., in May. Ottawa announced the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement – better known as the $10-a-day program – in 2021.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
They start out with such promise, don’t they? No, we’re not talking about children; we’re talking about government child-care programs.
When the federal Liberals talked about following Quebec’s child-care model four years ago, parents heard “$10 a day.”
They probably didn’t think that following Quebec’s lead would mean years-long waiting lists for subsidized spots.
Quebec launched its much-lauded $5-a-day program in 1997. The prospect of low-cost, high-quality care was so appealing to so many families that the system was soon overwhelmed.
By the mid-2000s, massive demand had led to massive waitlists. Parents who secured a subsidized spot had won the lottery. To address the problem of long waitlists, Quebec increased the tax credit for parents using for-profit garderies.
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So, lesson learned. If you’re going to create huge demand, you should have the supply to meet it, or at least prioritize making that happen right from the start when launching a subsidized child-care program.
And if years and years go by and parents still can’t find an affordable space, it’s only fair that they get to save on child care, too, even if it is in the form of tax credits. Hardly perfect, but fair.
The federal government used the Quebec system as a model when it announced the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement – better known as the $10-a-day program – in 2021.
Parents in large urban centres who were paying more than $1,500 a month for child care flocked to the program, unsurprisingly.
The federal government pledged to have costs down to an average of $10 a day across the country by April, 2026 – nine months from now. Another ambitious promise the federal government made: adding 250,000 affordable child-care spaces by that same deadline.
Unfortunately, reality intruded. Only six of the 13 provinces and territories have met or exceeded the $10-a-day target, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a think tank headquartered in Ottawa.
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Five provinces – Ontario, Alberta, B.C., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick – don’t yet have plans to cut fees to a maximum of $10 a day by the April, 2026, deadline.
In cities located in provinces without set fees, parents are shelling out large sums for child care. In Richmond, B.C., for example, the median cost for infant care is $46 a day (with half of costs above, and half below, that amount). In Vancouver it’s $29 a day (only because some spaces there are eligible for the $10-a-day program.)
Even in provinces that haven’t met the $10-a-day average and have no plan at the moment of how to get there, median costs have come down significantly.
In Toronto and the GTA, for example, parents are saving approximately $700 a month compared to what they were spending on child care before.
But, as in Quebec, that is only true of parents lucky enough to get a subsidized spot.
Where is the program on that promise of creating 250,000 spaces by 2026? As of last February, it was about 100,000 spaces short of that mark and unlikely to meet it on deadline.
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The program has done a good job of significantly lowering fees for many parents. In its next phase, it must prioritize the rapid expansion of child-care spaces, as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests.
But creating new spaces with the utmost urgency should have been the plan from the beginning. Instead, Ottawa chose to cut fees first, then move on to making new spaces.
That was a mistake that needs to be corrected, and fast. But it will likely take years to build the spaces necessary to meet the program’s target.
Where does that leave parents desperate for the savings so many of their peers are enjoying? The federal program must once again follow the Quebec example by giving parents an enhanced tax credit to enjoy the lower costs they are eager for and were promised.
But even with a bigger tax credit, families without a subsidized spot would still be worse off than those who have been lucky enough to secure one.
Ottawa and the provinces must move to narrow that gap, as a matter of fairness. Affordable child care shouldn’t be a lottery win for the lucky.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is based in Toronto. The think tank is headquartered in Ottawa.