Ottawa, Quebec reach agreement on child-care funding for $6B over 5 years
Quebec will soon be able to invest a large amount of money into its child-care network, following an agreement of $6 billion over five years with the federal government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault made the announcement Thursday morning at a park in Montreal's east end Hochelaga neighbourhood.
"This agreement will provide Quebec families and communities with additional support as we build back better from the pandemic," said Trudeau.
The federal government says negotiations with Quebec proceeded smoothly and quickly, due to the possibility of a general election call before the end of the summer.
As such, Ottawa accepted Quebec's request to not have any conditions imposed on the transfer.
In its last budget, the Trudeau government committed to a $30 billion, coast-to-coast, $10-a-day child-care program based on Quebec's Centres de la petite enfance (CPE) model.
"It's time for the rest of Canada to follow Quebec's example," Trudeau said. "Our plan for more affordable early child-care service will leave no family and no child behind."
Quebec created its own network of reduced child-care services in the 1990s and was given the option to opt-out of the federal program and receive full financial compensation.
Last April, Finance Minister Eric Girard confirmed the province will get just under $1 billion this year and close to $2 billion by 2025-26.
At the time, he said he received assurances from his federal counterpart, Chrystia Freeland, that the transfer would have "no conditions."
Quebec Premier François Legault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speak about childcare funding for the province. (Billy Shields/CTV News)
Quebec Premier François Legault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speak about childcare funding for the province. (Billy Shields/CTV News)
A 'significant portion' of the transfer will be used to strengthen Quebec's network of early childhood education and care services, as well as improve working conditions for educators, the federal government said.
"Young parents and their children will benefit directly," Legault agreed.
Quebec's child-care network is currently in dire need of help due to a lack of daycare spots, the recent closures of many family daycares and a worrisome labour shortage.
In addition, the wait for a child-care space is at an all-time high, with more than 50,000 names on the list.
Th governments note this announcement also confirms that it is possible to have federal-provincial agreements on an asymmetrical model, which allows Quebec to assert its identity without losing money.
The province already spends nearly $3 billion a year on its child-care system and this federal transfer would allow Quebec to create 22,000 new spaces.
Officials say this should be enough to make a difference, despite the high number of names on the wait list -- many parents are still waiting for a CPE spot even if they are already registered elsewhere.
In recent months, the federal government has entered into agreements with several provinces to implement its program and develop $10-a-day child-care spaces.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 3 and updated on Aug. 5, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.