Trudeau announces $200M in child-care funding during southwest Ontario visit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced more than $201 million in funding to help Ontario families access child care.

Speaking at the Stationview YMCA Childcare Centre in St. Thomas in southwestern Ontario, Trudeau, along with other federal ministers and MPs, said the funding will go to the province to build more child-care spaces.

“More than 750,000 kids have already benefited from affordable child care because of the investments we’ve made. Some families are saving over $14,000 per child per year because of the investments we’ve made,” Trudeau said.

“We’re working with provinces and territories to reach agreements to ensure that even more families have access to affordable child care. When we talk about fairness for every generation, this is what we mean.”

The funding is part of the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund announced in June 2023. The hope is that the funding will help the province reach its goal of creating 86,000 new child-care spaces by 2026, with an average cost of $10 a day.

Ontario is one of two provinces that hasn’t hit the $10-a-day mark, but according to federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jenna Sudds, fees have been reduced by 50 per cent on average.

“It’s about $23 a day here in Ontario, saving families about $8,500 each and every year per child,” Sudds said. “But we need to see the progress continuing to create new spaces as we work towards that end goal of getting to $10 a day.”

Sudds added that the federal government has done its part and is waiting on the province to “step up and do their part as well.” According to Sudds, around 23,000 child-care spaces have been announced by the province.

Trudeau also highlighted measures included in the new federal budget to build more child-care spaces, like the $1-billion Child Care Expansion Loan Program and student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early childhood educators.

“When conservative politicians say they’ll vote against the budget, this is what they’re voting against. They’re voting against more $10-a-day child-care spaces. They’re voting against more support for educators…. This is something that every politician should be able to get behind.”