N.S. signs onto fed child-care subsidy

HALIFAX • Nova Scotia has become the second province to sign on to a federal program that would fund thousands of subsidized daycare spots, in a deal that plays into the prime minister's and premier's potential election platforms.

Neither Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced a campaign date, but there's been speculation calls could come within weeks or even days.

During Tuesday's announcement at a Halifax child-care centre, Trudeau appeared via video link and said that the $605-million deal would halve the average child-care fees in the province by the end of next year, to $20 a day per child.

The program, he added, would gradually lower them over five years to $10 a day.

Nova Scotia joins British Columbia in signing a child-care deal with Ottawa.

The federal government's recent budget included more than $27.2 billion on child care for the provinces, provided they agree to targets on affordability, quality of care and training of early childhood educators.

Morna Ballantyne, executive director of the group Child Care Now, said in an interview that she's read the B.C. deal and noted there is a clause that allows Ottawa or the province to cancel it.

But each time that a province signs on, she said, it adds momentum to the federal program and sets up a scenario where female voters would react poorly to political parties that oppose or threaten to cancel the deals.

Ballantyne, an advocate for publicly funded daycare, said she doesn't think the deals are going to be cancelled — unlike what happened after Liberal prime minister Paul Martin in 2005 signed a series of child-care agreements with the provinces.

Stephen Harper's Conservative government ended the deals after taking power in 2006, pursuing an alternative path that included monthly payments to parents to assist them with child-care costs.

“It's going to be very difficult to roll back the kind of commitments being made in these agreements as they resonate with a lot of voters and sectors in the Canadian economy,” Ballantyne said.

Corey Tochor, the federal Conservative critic for families, children and social development, referred to the Trudeau government's plan in a May news release as “an `Ottawa-knows-best' government approach to child care that takes away choice and ensures that only publicly funded operators will survive, leaving behind small businesses, women, and families.”

“Canada's Conservatives believe parents know what is best for their children, not the government, and parents should have the choice in determining who will care for their children within their communities.”