Child-care deal will compel provinces to expand services

OTTAWA — Provinces won’t be able to use federal child-care funding to subsidize their own programs under the terms of a national framework set to be unveiled in the coming days.

Instead, the Trudeau government wants provinces and territories to use the money for regulated operations geared specifically for families in need — low income, indigenous, single-parent, or in under-served areas — and children under six.

The broad strokes of the agreement are contained in a Manitoba cabinet order recently posted online.

The order says the government has told provinces they must use the funding to “build on” — “not replace or displace” — existing spending in regulated child care.

The national child care framework sets out the governing principles for the 10-year child-care spending plan the government unveiled in March: quality, accessibility, affordability, flexibility and inclusivity.

Details emerging about the deal have those in the child-care sector wondering whether the deal will be as effective as they had hoped.

Many child care experts would rather see federal funding used on child care spaces available to any family, given that the need for child care crosses income levels, said Don Giesbrecht, CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation.

“As an aspirational document, I’m not seeing what we would like to see — a more fulsome approach,” he said.

The framework agreement will be released Monday when provincial and territorial leaders meet in Ottawa.

The Liberals have been negotiating the overarching framework for more than a year with the provinces and territories.

The March budget outlined $7 billion in new childcare funding from the federal government, starting with $500 million this fiscal year and increasing to $870 million annually by 2026.

Part of the money will also go towards funding indigenous child care on-reserve, to be subject to a separate indigenous framework.