TORONTO – Ontario was the laggard ever today, the long-awaited agreement to bring child care in the province to $10 a day by 2025, has finally arrived.
The province has reached a $13.2 billion deal with the federal government for nurseries that, as Prime Minister Trudeau noted, will cut daycare fees by half by the end of the year. Already in recent days, rumors of an imminent announcement in this regard after months of negotiations were circulating with increasing insistence. And today Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Doug Ford officially announced the deal from a YMCA in Brampton.
By reaching an agreement with the Ontario government, Trudeau has kept its commitment to reduce childcare fees to an average of $10 per day in each province and territory by 2025.
Trudeau said the new program will offer savings of an average of $6,000 per child, “real money for families” at a time when a number of costs are rising for households. An agreement, this, that now that all the provinces and territories have signed agreements in this regard, Trudeau does not hesitate to define a “historic moment”.
“Daicare are becoming a reality for all Canadians, we know that economic growth is unlocked when moms no longer have to choose between having a family or advancing in their careers. It’s an advantage not only for families, not just for children, but for all of us.” “This is the result of more than half a century of activism on the part of Canadian feminists who understood long ago that nurseries are an essential feminist policy, but also an essential economic policy,” added Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Ford, who will begin a provincial election campaign in a few weeks, framed the deal as one of the many ways his Conservative government is saving people money: the reference was to other measures such as refunds on license plate renewals. “It’s great news for Ontario parents and great news for Ontario residents,” Ford said, “it’s an agreement that offers flexibility in how we allocate federal funding, flexibility that is critical to making this agreement work in our province.”
Education Minister Stephen Lecce, for his part, said that while funding from other provinces will focus on nonprofit daycare, Ontario has been “able to ensure some flexibility to protect parental choice, even for those small business owners who are often women owners.”
Meanwhile, parents can expect fees to decrease by about 25%. Here’s what’s going to happen in the coming months: Starting April 1, 2022, families with children five years of age and younger attending licensed childcare centres will see fees reduced by up to 25% to a minimum of $12 per day. Refunds for parents, retroactive to April 1, will begin in May. In December 2022, tariffs will be further reduced by an average of around 50%.
The agreement outlines a plan to further lower costs in the coming years. In September 2024, taxes will be further lightened. A final reduction in September 2025 will bring the cost of kindergartens to an average of $10 per day.
Ontario wanted more certainty beyond the duration of the original five-year deal — although last year’s federal government budget stated that funding for the program after the fifth year would be $9 billion a year — and got a $2.9 billion commitment for the sixth year.
The agreement will also see Ontario create 86,000 places in kindergartens: this number includes more than 15,000 places already created since 2019.
