Pension minister to tackle child care
Indira Naidoo-Harris will oversee efforts to build improved early-years system
Rookie cabinet minister Indira Naidoo-Harris is being shuffled from pensions to preschoolers. Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Wednesday that Naidoo-Harris, who had been charged with overseeing the soon-to-be-defunct Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, is getting new responsibilities.
“Access to high-quality, affordable child care is essential to Ontario families,” Wynne told reporters at a downtown YMCA daycare facility.
“This new role in cabinet demonstrates our continued commitment to building a child care and early years system that will make life easier for parents and give children the chance to flourish,” she said.
With the Liberals spending $120 million over three years in new funding to create 4,000 licensed daycare spaces in schools across Ontario, Naidoo-Harris could have her hands full as associate minister of education, early years and child care.
In June, the first-term Halton MPP was elevated to cabinet as associate minister of finance for the Ontario pension plan.
But a national deal with the premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to enhance the Canada Pension Plan negated the need for a separate Ontario retirement scheme.
Wynne’s government spent $70 million on the ORPP, including severance packages for people hired to administer the plan.