A report finds Ottawa is set to miss the $10-a-day childcare target as Ontario is among five provinces without a plan to reduce childcare fees. <\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2014 Ottawa is expected to miss its 2026 deadline to implement $10-a-day child care services across the country, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said in a new report published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The analysis concluded that just six provinces and territories are meeting that fee target now.<\/p>\n
David Macdonald, an economist with the centre, said even though fees have dropped significantly everywhere, the federal government is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost certain that even after the 2026 deadline passes, many parents in five provinces will be paying more than $10 a day for child care,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat being said, the fee drops for parents so far have been staggering in Ontario, Alberta and Nunavut, as these jurisdictions had let fees get far too high before the federal program.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $10-a-day child care program, announced in 2021, was a signature policy of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n
The report says just six provinces and territories \u2014 Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador \u2014 have met or improved upon the government\u2019s 2026 target for $10-a-day child care.<\/p>\n
Five provinces \u2014 Ontario, Nova Scotia, Alberta, B.C. and New Brunswick \u2014 do not yet have plans to reduce fees to $10 a day, the report says.<\/p>\n
Cities in those provinces have the highest costs for child care, says the report \u2014 for example parents in Richmond, B.C. are paying median fees of $39 per day for infants, about four times the target fee.<\/p>\n
The federal government\u2019s goal was for fees to \u201caverage\u201d $10 a day, but Macdonald called that a \u201cget out of jail free card\u201d that will leave parents paying more than that amount after the deadline passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this will become a political problem in April of 2026 when folks say, \u2018Wait a second, this is a $10-a-day child care program, but I\u2019m paying $12, $17, $20 a day,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jurisdictions like Ontario that already had high fees are seeing savings of around $1,300 per month in Toronto and $1,000 per month in the surrounding area, the report found. Macdonald said that\u2019s largely because regulations have forced prices down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the board, we saw the provinces that had the fewest restrictions on fees and let the fees really get out of control, you see really big savings when you step in and regulate those fees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Macdonald said it\u2019s unlikely Ontario and Alberta will meet the 2026 target but noted the \u201cbig progress\u201d in those provinces and others.<\/p>\n
Fees in Quebec have increased slightly since 2019. Macdonald said that\u2019s largely due to inflation, with the province\u2019s day fee sitting about $0.70 below the $10 target.<\/p>\n
Macdonald said that as fees drop, another problem will continue to grow \u2014 the lack of child care spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, there isn\u2019t enough. The fact that fees are much lower drives a lot more demand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow the real question will be, can we rapidly build those spaces so that there are enough spaces for people to actually access these more affordable prices?\u201d<\/p>\n
Martha Friendly, who works with the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, said that to avoid \u201cchild care deserts,\u201d more public and non-profit child care spaces should be created countrywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe expansion of the child care workforce is also key, emphasizing the hiring of more workers and the retention of existing ones,\u201d Friendly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lessons of what works so far has been clear. We need primarily public and non-profit services, affordable set fees for parents and fair wages and good working conditions for workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2025.<\/p>\n
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A report finds Ottawa is set to miss the $10-a-day childcare target as Ontario is among five provinces…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,1571,50,80,3161],"class_list":{"0":"post-51670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-national","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-social"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114823889631788704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}