New Brunswick gets a $ 10-a-day daycare deal, leaving Ontario the only hurdle

OTTAWA: Ontario is now the only remaining province left after New Brunswick reached an agreement with the federal government on how to bring in a $ 10-a-day daycare.

New Brunswick’s plan, valued at about $ 492 million, is expected to be announced next week, possibly Monday, the Star has learned.

Meanwhile, according to a new study, licensed child care in Ontario remains “surprisingly unaffordable” for many families, despite the existence of parental fee subsidies and a refundable tax credit.

Written by economists Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky of the University of Toronto Scarborough, it urged Ontario to negotiate a deal with Ottawa.

However, they recommend that special care be taken even after reaching an agreement to ensure that low-income families are not at a disadvantage when it comes to obtaining the benefits of the new program.

Ontario is the latest jurisdiction to come to the federal table with a proposal on how it would like to use its share of a $ 27.2 billion program to expand early learning and child care services.

Even the two remaining territories that have yet to sign, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, are well advanced in talks with Ottawa to increase their infrastructure capacity to deliver the program.

Ontario and federal officials got to the heart of the talks just this week.

They exchanged detailed data on what sources on both sides describe as Ontario’s complex child care landscape: one that includes free full-day junior and senior kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds, along with some of the average costs. highest child care rates in the country. .

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Federal Minister for Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould met Monday night, with both sides describing the discussions as “positive.”

A senior federal source, speaking of background, told the Star that Ontario provided data, both levels of government clarified their expectations, priorities and positions, and now things can “move in the right direction.”

“Nothing is imminent, nothing landed,” said the federal official.

A senior provincial official echoed that assessment.

“The numbers are key and both parties need to get it right and understand the implications,” said the Ontario official with direct knowledge of the talks.

“We are very confident in the modeling and work that we have done over the past few months to realistically reflect the cost of a $ 10 a day program in Ontario,” said the Ontario insider, adding, “that’s not $ 10.2 (one billion) “.

Ottawa has offered Ontario $ 10.2 billion under a formula based on 38% of the province’s Canadian population of children under the age of five.

“But I agree that the talks continue to be very good, respectful and constructive,” the Ontario official said.

Ontario is demanding more money, arguing that it bears the $ 3.6 billion cost of a full-day kindergarten for boys and girls, which few other provinces do.

The province also spends about $ 1.89 billion on childcare subsidies for parents.

The study published this week by Cleveland and Krashinsky examines the affordability of child care in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba; the last two have signed agreements with Ottawa.

It found child care costs “affordable” if the net cost of obtaining care is a small percentage (30 percent or less) of the increase in family income generated when the parent in charge of care takes a job.

And he said the federal program, designed to cut licensed child care rates in half by the end of 2022, and cut them to $ 10 a day over the next five years, would make a big difference in Ontario.

“The $ 10-a-day program can and should dramatically change the affordability of child care and make employment a valuable option for many caregivers,” the study concluded.

However, the study authors also cautioned that much depends on the specific policies the province adopts to reduce parental payments.

Even if provinces and territories adopt a flat rate of $ 10 a day, they said, lawmakers will need some kind of sliding scale to ensure low-income families are not disadvantaged.

Cleveland said any Ontario action plan “must include support for the drastic expansion of nonprofit child care, at least 150,000 spaces over five years.”

“A plan is needed to incorporate more affordable child care so that supply and demand increase together. And it needs plans to pay more for early childhood educators so we can hire more trained staff now. ”

On Thursday, Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland touted the initiative, which has committed $ 27.2 billion to fund the creation of a $ 10-a-day “pan-Canadian” daycare.

Modeled after Quebec’s publicly funded system, this is a structural change that “will dramatically increase the labor force participation rate, especially for mothers of children (aged three and under),” Freeland said.

“It is a very important driver of jobs and growth.”