Posts Tagged ‘child care’

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Mark Carney has forgotten who helped get him elected

Sunday, May 3rd, 2026

Headlines like “A Canada for All” sound nice. As do statements like: “the government is protecting the essential social programs that give Canadians a fair chance to get ahead — child care, dental care, and pharmacare.” But dig into the details and you learn national pharmacare is ending. There is no new money to create more child care spaces. Federal health-care spending is drastically being cut… There is effectively no new money in Carney’s fiscal plan to support what he calls “essential social programs.”

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Posted in Governance Debates | 9 Comments »


Reduced Fees, Rising Waitlists: Early Lessons from Canada’s Childcare Plan

Thursday, March 19th, 2026

To strengthen the program’s impact, the authors recommend expanding licensed childcare spaces, particularly in underserved areas, improving wages and working conditions for early childhood educators, and introducing more flexible supports – such as an income-tested refundable tax credit – for families relying on non-subsidized care.

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Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 28 Comments »


Provinces need to own their responsibility for expanding low-fee child care

Wednesday, February 4th, 2026

The most recent data shows eight of ten provinces will miss the federal goal of having 5.9 child care spaces per 10 children. Only two provinces have that level of access: Quebec and P.E.I… The rest of the provinces weren’t even paying half the cost of their child care programs—they coasted on federal investments… In fact, many of the provinces who have been loudly complaining that the CWELCC program is “too expensive” are also the ones who are paying the least for it.

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Ford government is an obstacle to highly affordable, high-quality child care

Thursday, December 4th, 2025

Ontario’s auditor general reported the Ford government failed to create the number of child care spaces it promised, even as overall demand has tripled. Much of this failure is down to Conservatives’ fixation on for-profit child care… The result? Thousands of families are still without child care. 

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Child-care affordability is coming at the expense of equity — and it’s time governments acted

Tuesday, November 18th, 2025

… more than 16,500 children in Toronto are waitlisted for a space, while nearly one in three publicly funded programs deny them access… Funding structures further entrench inequity. Fee subsidies are paid from provincial budgets, while CWELCC affordability funding comes from the federal government. When families stop using subsidies — because spaces are unavailable or eligibility rules too restrictive — provinces and territories save money, while still benefiting politically from federal investments that make care appear more affordable.

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Ottawa asks court to overturn tribunal order on First Nations child welfare

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025

Progress on a child welfare agreement stalled when First Nations twice rejected a $47.8-billion deal last year, and when Ottawa called a halt to formal talks on the issue with First Nations outside of Ontario… if Ottawa refuses to resume negotiations, the Assembly of First Nations, the Caring Society and the National Children’s Chiefs Commission could present the tribunal with an evidence-based reform plan of their own.

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This confidential report reveals Ontario is spending millions to warehouse kids under Children’s Aid care in hotels and other unlicensed settings

Thursday, July 17th, 2025

Ontario is spending millions of dollars a year to warehouse vulnerable kids in hotels, shelters and other unlicensed settings that child welfare agencies are turning to amid a provincewide shortage of treatment options for kids with complex health needs… The use of these placements has soared over the past three years… putting unprecedented strain on children’s aid societies and leaving many kids in unstable or dangerous living arrangements where they are being contained rather than treated.

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Doug Ford always had a mandate to invest in Ontario, he just didn’t do his job

Friday, January 24th, 2025

Does the current government have the mandate to expand child care provision, tackle the colossal school repair backlog, reduce emergency room waiting times and assist the more than 100,000 Torontonians relying on food banks and 80,000 Ontarians experiencing homelessness? It does.
Yet, that’s not the focus. Year in and year out, the Ontario government’s attention and dollars have been poured into populist and nonsense measures nobody asked for.

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New child care fees take effect in Ontario on Jan. 1: Here’s what families need to know 

Friday, January 3rd, 2025

As of Jan. 1, 2025, fees are capped at $22 per day for children under the age of six — but only if your licensed child care provider is enrolled with the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system… According to a Statistics Canada report, parents in 2023 paid an average of $7,557 annually for the main full-time (30 or more hours per week) child care arrangement for their child five years of age and younger… an average of $630 per month for full-time child care, or $30 per day.

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Canada-wide child care: It’s now less expensive, but finding it is more difficult

Friday, December 27th, 2024

All provinces and territories have met their affordability targets. Parent costs were reduced by 50 per cent by the 2022 deadline… some jurisdictions are not using the federal funding available to them. Governments have added just over $4.5 billion to their child-care spending since 2020, well below the $15 billion available to date through CWELCC. If concerns about funding is pressing provincial and territorial governments could, of course, add their own funding, but few have done so. Relying on federal funds is now the norm.

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