National childcare program highlight of recovery plan
After two years of waiting and over a year into the pandemic, the Liberal government revealed its 2021 federal budget on Monday.
Touted as a budget to finish the fight against COVID-19,
Deputy Prime Minister and
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled a plan focused on getting Canada through, and recovering from, the pandemic by developing a national child care program, extending COVID-19 recovery programs and creating a handful of new programs to support post-pandemic recovery.
The goal of the national child care program is to reduce costs for parents up to 50 per cent by the end of 2022 and to see an average cost of $10 a day within five years, said Freeland in a media briefing before she tabled the budget in the House of Commons.
“After 50 years of talking about it and fighting for it,
we’re finally going to get it done.”
In the P.E.I. government’s budget last month, it committed $650,000 to create 300 child care spaces across the province, though details are still uncertain as the budget has yet to pass.
The federal government also announced an extension of programs, including the emergency wage and rent subsidies until Sept. 25, 2021 — previously slated to end June 5 — along with programs to help low-wage earners and commitments to support 35,000 affordable housing units through an investment of $2.5 billion and a reallocation of $1.3 billion in existing funding.
Check out Saltwire.com for more coverage of the federal budget and The Guardian on Wednesday for reactions from P.E.I. stakeholders.