ST.
THOMAS, ON, May 13, 2024
/CNW/ - Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young
families, including Millennial parents, the costs of child care can
add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder
to start and support a family, and as a result, parents –
especially moms – often face impossible choices between their
careers and child care fees.
Budget 2024 is about fairness for every generation. And it
is why we introduced $10-a-day child
care across Canada – with all
provinces and territories already offering, or working toward,
$10-a-day child care. This progress,
made possible by nearly $40 billion in federal support, is
making life more affordable for young families. Now, the
participation of women in the workforce has reached record
highs. That means more families are bringing home more income
and growing our economy, while saving thousands of dollars on child
care every year.
We need to keep this work going and that means creating more
affordable child care spaces.
The Prime Minister, Justin
Trudeau, today announced that the Government of
Canada is providing Ontario with $201.87 million to create child care spaces
and support inclusive child care services across the province,
especially in underserved communities. This investment, part of the
previously announced $625 million Early Learning and Child
Care Infrastructure Fund, will help Ontario reach our goal of creating 86,000 new
child care spaces by 2026 – meaning more families in Ontario can access affordable spaces.
It will mean more spaces in rural and remote regions, high-cost
and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face
barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous
Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well
as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities. We are
working with all other provincial and territorial partners to reach
similar funding agreements.
The Prime Minister also highlighted key measures included in
Budget 2024 to build more child care spaces and
infrastructure, support early childhood educators across the
country, and help more families access affordable child care. These
include:
- Launching a new Child Care Expansion Loan Program. With
up to $1 billion in low-cost loans
and $60 million in non-repayable
grants, public and not-for-profit child care providers will be able
to build new spaces and renovate their existing child care centres.
This means more resources for child care providers and more
affordable child care options for families.
- Offering student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early
childhood educators. This will encourage educators to work in
smaller communities and help families get the child care they need.
With a $48 million investment over
four years, Canada Student Loan forgiveness amounts will increase
with the amount of time an educator works in a rural or remote
area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the benefits
we're offering rural doctors and nurses.
- Increasing training for early childhood educators. We're
investing $10 million over two years
to train more early childhood educators, building up the talent
needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child
care.
- Improving child care access for military families.
Military service often demands frequent moves and deployments,
making quality child care imperative for Canadian Armed Forces
members. That is why we're investing $100
million over five years to provide Canadian Armed Forces
personnel and their families with better access to child care on
bases across Canada.
In just three years, we've made incredible progress in building
the Canada-wide early learning and
child care system. Across the country, over 750,000 kids are
already benefiting from affordable, high-quality child care, with
some families saving up to $14,300
per child, per year. Alongside provinces and territories, we have
also announced measures to create over 100,000 new spaces, well on
our way to reaching our goal of creating 250,000 new spaces by
March 2026.
The measures highlighted above are just some of the things that
we're doing in Budget 2024 to build a fairer and more
inclusive Canada for every
generation. We're also building more homes, improving health care,
and investing in our economy – to make sure every Canadian has a
fair chance to succeed.
Quotes
"Affordable child care gives moms and dads the opportunity to
build their careers, helps families save money, and gives kids the
best start to life. With Budget 2024, we're creating more child
care spaces, hiring more early childhood educators, giving them
more training, and working with provinces like Ontario to make sure families get the care
they deserve. Affordable, quality child care – that's what fairness
looks like."
— The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau,
Prime Minister of Canada
"Young families who don't yet have access to affordable child
care spaces are paying nearly a second rent or mortgage payment for
unregulated child care. This is unfair to today's generation of
parents, including Millennial parents, who need and deserve the
relief of $10-a-day spaces. With
today's new agreement with Ontario
to build more affordable spaces, we are helping more families
access affordable child care and save thousands of dollars every
year."
— The Hon. Chrystia Freeland,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
"Affordable, high-quality child care has
provided families with financial relief and is
giving thousands of children the best possible start in
life. Over 3,000,000 families in Ontario are already benefitting from thousands
of dollars in savings in their childcare fees each year. With this
new agreement, and the measures laid out in Budget 2024,
Ontario has the funding and tools
its needs to create spaces and reduce waitlists for parents across
the province."
— The Hon. Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and
Social Development
Quick Facts
- The Government of Canada's
Budget 2024 was tabled in the House of Commons by the Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Finance on April
16, 2024.
- As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of
more than $27 billion over five years
to build a Canada-wide early
learning and child care system with provinces and territories.
- As part of the Canada–Ontario Canada-wide Early Learning and
Child Care Agreement, the Government of Canada is investing more than $10.2 billion through 2025-2026 to help improve
early learning and child care for children and their families in
Ontario.
- Combined with investments since Budget 2021, including in
Indigenous early learning and child care, the federal government is
providing nearly $40 billion over
five years for early learning and child care.
- Investments in child care benefit all Canadians. Studies show
that for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the
broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in
return.
- In 2023, Canada saw a record
79.7 per cent labour force participation rate for core-aged mothers
with children under age six.
- To date, eight provinces and territories are delivering
regulated child care for an average of $10-a-day or less, including Quebec and the Yukon, which achieved this prior to the
Canada-wide early learning and
child care system. In all other provinces and territories, fees for
regulated child care have been reduced by at least 50 per cent on
average. Provinces and territories are working toward lowering fees
for regulated child care to $10-a-day
on average by March 2026.
- Canada-wide early learning and
child care is saving families, per child, up to $13,700 a year in Alberta, $8,500
in Ontario, $6,900 in Saskatchewan, $6,600 in British
Columbia, $6,300 in
Newfoundland and Labrador, $6,000
in Nova Scotia, $4,170 in Prince Edward
Island, $3,600 in New Brunswick, $2,610 in Manitoba, $7,300
in the Yukon, $9,120 in the Northwest
Territories (effective April 1,
2024), and $14,300 in
Nunavut.
- As part of the Canada-wide
early learning and child care system, the Government of
Canada is working with provinces
and territories to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the
country by March 2026 to increase
access to affordable child care options for families, no matter
where they live.
- To support this goal, the federal government
previously announced the Early Learning and
Child Care Infrastructure Fund. The Fund provides an
additional $625 million to provinces and territories to
support infrastructure projects for not-for-profit child care
spaces in underserved communities, such as rural and
remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban
neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access,
including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples,
official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as
parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities.
- To give every child the best start in life, the federal
government is also:
- Giving families more money through the Canada Child
Benefit to help with the costs of raising their children and
make a real difference in the lives of children in Canada. The Canada Child Benefit, which can
provide up to $7,437 per child per
year, is indexed annually to keep up with the cost of living and
has helped lift half a million children out of poverty since its
launch in 2016.
- Improving access to dental health care for children under the
age of 12 through the Canada Dental Benefit, and soon for
children under 18 with the Canadian Dental Care Plan, because
no one should have to choose between taking care of their kids'
teeth and putting food on the table.
- Creating a National School Food Program to help ensure
every child has the best start in life, with the food they need to
learn and grow, no matter their circumstances.
- Helping students acquire coding skills by advancing the next
phase of CanCode, with an investment of $39.2 million. CanCode has helped over
4.5 million students—from kindergarten through
grade 12—to develop coding and digital skills, priming kids
for success in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics.
- Supporting after-school learning with an investment of
$67.5 million to help all
Canadian students reach their full potential. After-school learning
and supports play an important role in helping students succeed in
their academic pursuits, especially for at-risk students.
Associated Links
- Fairness for Every Generation
- Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
- More $10-a-day child care
spaces
- Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for
Canada's Defence
- Toward $10-a-day: Early Learning
and Child Care
This document is also available
at https://pm.gc.ca
SOURCE Prime Minister's Office