Challenges remain in plan to cut child-care fees: study
Some cities will not halve costs by the end of year
The federal government’s highly touted national childcare program aims to make care more affordable for parents, but a new study suggests just how much fees are reduced will depend on where they live.
The study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says because provinces and territories are taking different approaches to try to meet the government’s initial fee reduction targets, some might miss them.
“It seems to me the challenge is not so much getting a plan up and running, it’s correctly implementing it,” said David Macdonald, study co-author and a senior economist at the centre.
The Liberals’ 2021 budget promised $30 billion in new spending on a national child-care system over five years, and $9.2 billion annually afterward.
The government’s national plan is intended to cut average fees in half for regulated early learning and child-care spaces by the end of the year, and bring $10-a-day child care to every province and territory by 2026.
“Broadly speaking, most cities and most age groups will miss the federal targets. They won’t miss them by much, but they will miss them,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald said he hopes the provinces move to the set fee system, the most predictable and transparent way to get to the 50 per cent reduction in child-care fees. Five provinces have adopted this method, including Quebec and most recently New Brunswick.
Many other provinces haven’t touched the prior market fees, meaning whatever the child-care centre charged is still in place, and parents would be given rebates against the fee, he said.
“Those market fees are all over the place. They can be expensive, they can be cheap, they can be in the middle. It’s much less predictable in terms of what parents might get,” Macdonald said, noting this route is harder to calculate and track for parents, and harder for provinces to manage.
Mohammad Hussain, spokesperson for Families Minister Karina Gould, said in a statement that many Canadian cities are well on their way to reaching the federal goal of reducing parent fees by 50 per cent on average by the end of 2022. The government’s agreements include commitments to reduce average fees at the provincial and territorial level, and account for the effect of subsidies, he said.