Hurry, Kathleen Wynne tells the Tories as negotiations for child care funding with Ottawa continue

As federal and provincial officials quietly negotiate over $ 10-a-day childcare, former Prime Minister Kathleen Wynne is pressuring Queen’s Park to make a deal with Ottawa.

“It was encouraging last week when we learned that the minister was meeting with federal officials to work out a child care agreement, but that has not happened,” he said in the legislature on Monday.

“I know firsthand that negotiations between the provincial and federal governments can be slow and frustrating,” said Wynne, who was Ontario’s prime minister from 2013 to 2018.

“But … this federal government has been able to sign agreements with most of the other provinces and territories of the country,” he said.

“I know Ontario is special, it’s very special, but the families in Windsor or Thunder Bay are not very different from the families in Calgary or Halifax. Everyone needs child care that they can afford. ”

A defensive Education Minister, Stephen Lecce, responded that the cost of child care in Ontario “increased by 400 percent” during the nearly 15-year liberal reign of Wynne and his predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.

“That is indefensible and … everyone would recognize in this legislature that families paid the price for that neglect, where it was inaccessible and unaffordable for too many moms and dads in Ontario,” he said.

Wynne reminded Lecce that “not for a moment in our time in office did we have a federal government putting $ 30 billion on the table to reduce child care costs in Ontario.”

Ottawa is offering Ontario $ 10.2 billion, which is the province’s portion of $ 27.2 billion that the federal government has committed to funding child care.

But Prime Minister Doug Ford has said Queen’s Park deserves a bigger stake because childcare is more expensive here and the provincial government already spends $ 3.6 billion on a full-day kindergarten for the 260,000 four- and five-year-olds. .

A senior provincial official, speaking confidentially to discuss internal deliberations, said Monday that talks with Ottawa are progressing well.

“There has always been a way,” said the source, adding that the federal government “is still digging into the numbers, in which we have a lot of confidence.”

Karina Gould, the federal minister for families, children and social development, said last week that she believes an agreement with Ontario is within reach.

“I really feel optimistic. The fact that officials are speaking is a very good sign, ”Gould said.

“Do I think it will happen in the immediate term? No, there is still a lot of work and conversation to have. But I think the general goals … are there. ”

Robert Benzie is the bureau chief for Star’s Queen’s Park and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie