The federal government’s fiscal update includes two clear signs that they recognize the country’s economic recovery depends on a robust, accessible and affordable early learning and child care system:
- immediate federal funds to alleviate the child care workforce crisis
- a federal child care secretariat to start putting in place a system of publicly funded and publicly managed childcare.
These measures are a reasonable start, Child Care Now Executive Director Morna Ballantyne said. But the real ‘tell’ of the government’s intentions will be the promised federal plan to build a Canada-wide system of child care.
“The fiscal update commits the government to having a roll-out plan by the 2021 budget,” she said.
Child Care Now has said that the government would need $2 billion to get the ball rolling and a further $2 billion of additional funding each year after that.
“So the $420 million in transfers to the provinces and territories to address the workforce crisis is a small deposit, really.”
“Good steps. Shame it’s not 1975. But we’ll get there yet,” she added.