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Alternative Federal Budget recommends increases in operational and capital funding to expand and strengthen the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program 

Led by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) recommends investment and spending across many areas and programs, including child care. This year’s budget proposals are focused on policy actions that build Canada’s strength through a commitment to solidarity and justice for all. 

Notably, the AFB budget actions include significant annual increases in operational and capital funding to support provinces and territories to continue to expand the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program. The AFB recommends increasing the 2027-28 federal operating funding for child care from the $8 billion projected in the spring economic update to $9.7 billion, rising annually by 11 per cent in the following years.

By increasing child care capital and operational funding , the AFB budgetary proposals aim to: 

  • Address the exclusion of women from Canada’s current fiscal plan.
  • Further advance universal child care as an essential pillar of a robust, workable economic strategy to support Canada Strong.
  • Highlight the irrefutable fact that affordable, accessible child care is also key to addressing the affordability crisis for young families.

Each province and territory will receive a share of these funds based on the ongoing per capita formula contingent upon preparation of a detailed five-year operational plan that : 

  • Provides capital funding for expansion through a renewed Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. Capital funding will fund only public and non-profit child care facilities, with a goal of public retention of publicly funded capital assets.
  • Ensures adequate operational and capital support for the full implementation of the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework co-developed by First Nations, Métis and Inuit partners and the Government of Canada.
  • Convenes and supports the development of a comprehensive strategy to build a public before- and after-school child care system covering children outside regular school hours from the age of four years to 12.
  • Requires each provincial and territorial government to issue a comprehensive public report each year on the implementation of its operational and capital expansion plans and its workforce strategy, including specific and consistent performance indicators for expansion, operational and workforce targets.
  • Develops, funds and operationalizes a comprehensive Canada-wide early learning and child care data strategy to monitor and report publicly on progress, track and account for public spending, and support policy development.
  • Funds an early learning and child care research program to answer key research questions and evaluate the effects of policy and program change.
  • Commits the federal government to producing an annual public report on the overall progress of all elements of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program, including consistent and comparable key indicators for each province and territory.

Read the Alternative Federal Budget.