Summary
This, our tenth annual child care survey, is likely to be the last of its kind as Canada moves rapidly toward much lower, set child care fees. With the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care plan’s next fee reduction milestone—average $10-a-day fees for all children aged 0 to 5—coming up in April 2026, we wanted to take stock of how close (or far) parent fees are from meeting that target.
As in previous years, our survey has assessed progress in achieving the affordability goals for full-time, licensed centres and regulated family child care for infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children up to the beginning of kindergarten. Our phone survey gathered data on child care fees in 37 cities across Canada, together with other variables, including how fees have changed since the federal government introduced Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC, or the “$10-a-day plan”) in 2021.
Most jurisdictions have set fees, but we’re not at $10 a day yet
Child care fee reductions for parents are now well under way in all provinces and territories. However, by April of 2026 many parents with children in CWELCC-supported spaces will still be paying more than the $10-a-day target. However, the federal objective of “an average of $10 a day” is quite different than a maximum parent fee of $10 a day. “Average” does not
Key findings
• Six provinces/territories have already met or exceeded the CWELCC final target of $10-a-day child care in advance of the April 2026 target: Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Nine Provinces/territories already have set fees. These include the six $10-a-day jurisdictions above but also New Brunswick, Alberta and Ontario whose set fees are more than $10 a day. Additionally, British Columbia has a minority of spaces at $10 a day.
• Provinces and territories still using market fees but reducing them by a set amount are Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia and British Columbia (most BC spaces continue to use market fees).
• In the Ontario cities, for example, infant fees are $22 a day—twice the 2026 target.
• Alberta has moved to set fees, but at $362.25 a month (or $16.69 a day), these are still well above the $10-a-day goal.
• Cities still using market fees have the highest median fees for infants. For example, Richmond, B.C., tops the list at $46 a day for infants with Surrey, B.C., a close second at $39 a day roughly four times the $10-a-day target.
• Preschool-age fees in 11 cities are already at or below the $10-a-day target. But the cities in B.C. are again still well above the target. Richmond stands out with a median preschool-age fee of $39 a day. Although the Vancouver median of $29 a day for preschool-age children is lower due to it benefiting from $10-a-day program.
• Parents in all cities saw some savings for infant spaces in 2025 compared to 2019/20. Savings were lowest (less than $200/month) in the B.C. cities of Richmond and Surrey. They were highest for infants in Toronto and Greater Toronto Area cities, and in Iqaluit (more than $1,000/month).
• In the preschool-age category, the biggest savings between 2019/20 and 2025 by far were for parents in Iqaluit, with savings per child just under $1,000. Parents in Toronto and the GTA cities are saving about $700 a month compared to 2020, and Calgarians with preschool-aged children are saving just over $700 a month compared to 2019.
• Preschooler parents in Richmond and Surrey in British Columbia again saw the lowest savings—just over $100 and about $200 a month, respectively.
• While most cities have seen additional fee reductions since December 2022, cities in British Columbia and Nova Scotia have actually seen fees rise. Their fee reductions haven’t changed since then. Meanwhile, underlying market fees have continued to rise eroded the parental savings.
Generally, the higher child care fees were to begin with, the larger the savings for parents brought about by the CWELCC fee reduction. Smaller savings generally meant the jurisdiction had a better public program before CWELCC began.
In its final phase, CWELCC is going to have to work on a second, more difficult to solve challenge: meeting much higher demand for lower fees. This necessitates the rapid creation of more child care spaces, but with equity in mind—to provide better access in what we call child care deserts. This requires a publicly led and funded expansion, much like we see in the K–12 school and health care systems. Recruitment of early child care educators is part of the picture, but so is the retention of current employees. Set fees are the answer to lower fees, but set wages, via wage grids, is likely the key to staffing the expansion.