More government support needed to meet $10-a-day child care fee targets across the country, says new report

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released its tenth annual child care fee survey, which reports on median parent fees in 37 Canadian cities.

The report, entitled The Price is Not Right (Yet): $10 a day child care falling short of target, finds that only six of the 13 provinces and territories have met or exceeded the federal government’s 2021 goal of bringing down parent fees for licensed child care to $10-a-day across the country by April 2026. 

Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have met the target in advance of the deadline. Quebec already had monthly fees set below $10aDay at the start of the federal initiative, at least for directly publicly funded licensed child care programs.

Fee reductions for parents are significant in most provinces

Although the CCPA report predicts that many parents in Canada will be paying more than $10 a day for child care after April 2026, median parent fees have dropped everywhere outside of Quebec where regulated fees increase each year in line with the cost of living.

Lower fees have resulted in significant savings for parents. For example: 

  • In Toronto, the drop in the median fee for infant child care translates into parental savings of $1,389 a month for an infant space, compared to fees in 2019.
  • In other GTA suburban cities, parent savings for infant child care amount to approximately $1000 per month.
  • The biggest drop in the cost of a preschool space since 2019 was in Iqaluit resulting in monthly savings of just under $1000. 
  • The smallest drop in median preschool fees since 2019 has been in Richmond, BC and Surrey, BC. There, parents have saved $200 per month. 
  • In 2019 parents in Manitoba were already benefitting from relatively low province-wide set fees. Therefore, parents in Winnipeg have saved less than parents in many other Canadian cities when the provincial government dropped the set fee to $10 a day. 

Fees are expected to be reduced further over the coming months in provinces that have not yet put in place a set fee of $10. The Ontario government is planning to reduce fees to a maximum of $12 per day in March 2026, down from its current $22 a day rate. However, future fee reductions remain unclear for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta and British Columbia. 

More needs to be done to ensure equitable access to affordable child care

Child Care Now is calling on all provinces and territories to move quickly to set parent fees for all age groups at a maximum of $10aDay and to ensure that low income families pay less than $10 per child.

“The CCPA study confirms that parent fees are lowest and most equitable in provinces and territories that have introduced a set maximum fee,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now. “If the government sets the fee, all families pay the same regardless of where they live or in which licensed program they happen to find a spot.”

“ It makes no sense to have fees all over the map as is the case in British Columbia, for example,” she added.

In the report, co-authors David Macdonald and Martha Friendly emphasize the need for more equitably distributed, public and non-profit child care spaces, as well as investments in the workforce so the public and not-for-profit sector will expand.

Read the full report here