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The marquee item in Monday’s federal budget was a promise for $30 billion in child care funding over five years, and at least $8.3 billion annually after that. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the goal is to see a 50 per cent reduction in average child care fees by the end of 2022, and $10-per-day fees by 2026.
All of this is easier said than done, however, as child care directly falls under provincial jurisdiction. On the other hand, federal money on this scale has the potential to move things quickly, and the feds are already involved in child-care funding through bilateral agreements signed in 2017.
Will your kid s daycare survive COVID-19?
Many child care centres across Canada are just scraping by. Photo: Getty Images
When Tia Shkolnik’s baby was six months old, she put down a deposit of more than $2,000 to secure a spot in a brand-new child care centre even though they weren’t planning on sending their daughter to daycare until she was 12 months old. “It’s very hard to find a daycare placement where we live,” explains Shkolnik.
By the time her daughter’s first birthday rolled around in May 2020, COVID-19 had closed most daycares across Ontario, including in Vaughan, where they live. After