Child care chapter introduction

This year marks the end of the first five years of the federal government’s Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program. By transferring funds to the provinces and territories, and pursuant to negotiated bilateral child care action plans, the federal government has turned a primarily privately funded system of early learning and child care into one that is primarily publicly funded.

Parent fees for licensed programs that are part of the program are regulated in every jurisdiction. Six provinces and territories (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Nunavut, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) have put in place measures to limit daily fees to $10 or less for publicly funded licensed programs. This changed approach to financing early learning and child care has been a longstanding objective of Canada’s child care movement. It sets the stage for the development of a high-quality, inclusive, and universally accessible child care system that is also designed to respect and advance the rights of Indigenous children, families, and communities.

However, realizing this objective depends on all levels of government choosing to do the following: fund child care sufficiently and appropriately; accelerate the expansion of not-for-profit and public child care services through proper public planning and all-of-government effort and coordination; and develop and implement comprehensive strategies to expand a qualified early learning and child care workforce.