Budget 2024: More $10-a-day child care spaces in Nova Scotia
News release
May 14, 2024 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia - Department of Finance Canada
Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young families, including Millennial and Gen Z parents, the costs of child care can add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder to start and support a family, and as a result, parents—especially moms—often face impossible choices between their careers and child care fees.
Fairness for every generation means ensuring young parents—especially moms—don’t have to make the difficult decision of starting a family or having a career. The government is taking action to make life cost less for young families, enable parents to join the workforce and increase their family income, and build a Canada where every generation can get ahead.
Already, the federal government’s affordable child care system has all provinces and territories offering, or on track to offer, $10-a-day child care. This progress, made possible by nearly $40 billion in federal support, is making life more affordable for young families. Affordable child care has increased women’s labour force participation to a record high of 87 per cent in Nova Scotia, and 85 per cent nationally. That means more families are bringing home more income and contributing to Canada’s economic growth, while saving thousands of dollars on child care every year.
But more families need access to affordable child care.
That’s why, today in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, joined the Honourable Becky Druhan, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, to announce a federal investment of an additional $19.8 million over four years to help reach our goal of building 9,500 $10-a-day child care spaces in Nova Scotia by March 2026.
Today’s investment to build more spaces in Nova Scotia through the new $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund will help more families save up to $6,000 per year, per child. This includes creating more spaces for underserved communities, including Indigenous, rural, and remote communities, as well as for children with disabilities and French language minority communities.
To build more spaces, help more families save thousands of dollars on child care, and ensure the next generation of parents don’t have to choose between raising a family or having a career, Budget 2024 also includes:
- Launching a $1 billion Child Care Expansion Loan Program to help public and not-for-profit child care providers to build more child care spaces and renovate their existing child care centres;
- Expanding the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to early childhood educators who work in rural and remote communities. With a $48 million investment over four years, student loan forgiveness will increase the longer an educator works in a rural or remote area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the programs we’re offering rural doctors and nurses;
- Increasing training for early childhood educators by investing $10 million over two years for Canada’s Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to build up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care; and,
- Improving child care access for military families by investing $100 million to provide Canadian Armed Forces personnel and their families with better access to child care on bases across Canada.
In just three years, we’ve made incredible progress in building the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. Across the country, over 750,000 kids are already benefiting from affordable, high-quality child care, with some families saving up to $14,300 per child, per year. Alongside provinces and territories, we have also announced over 100,000 new spaces, well on our way to reaching our goal of creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.
Investing in affordable child care is about helping more families save thousands of dollars on child care and ensuring every child has the best start in life. The measures highlighted above are just some of the things that we’re doing in Budget 2024 to build a fairer Canada for every generation. We’re also building more homes, strengthening public health care, making life cost less, and growing the economy in a way that is shared by all—to make sure every generation has a fair chance at building a good middle class life.
Quotes
“Young families who don’t yet have access to affordable child care spaces are paying as much as a second rent or mortgage payment for unregulated child care. This is unfair to today’s generation of parents, especially Millennial and Gen Z parents, who need and deserve the relief of $10-a-day spaces. Today’s new agreement with Nova Scotia will build more affordable spaces, so that more families can access affordable child care and save thousands of dollars every year.”
– The Honourable Chrystia Freeland,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
“Every family should have access to high-quality, inclusive child care. More child care spaces mean more high-quality spots for kids, and more relief for parents as they access affordable child care. The Government of Canada remains committed to working with Nova Scotia so children in Canada have the best possible start in life. The Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund will help child care providers across the province so they can continue to provide access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care to underserved communities.”
– The Honourable Jenna Sudds,
Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
“Child care spaces are in high demand across the province. To meet those demands, we need to use innovative approaches to make child care more accessible. The major infrastructure program, the minor infrastructure program and the family home start-up program, all play important parts in the expansion and transformation of child care in Nova Scotia.”
– The Honourable Becky Druhan,
Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development
Quick facts
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Budget 2024 was tabled in the House of Commons by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on April 16, 2024.
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As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of more than $27 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system with provinces and territories.
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Combined with investments since 2016, including in Indigenous early learning and child care, the federal government has announced investments of nearly $40 billion in early learning and child care.
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As of December 31, 2023, over 3,860 new child care spaces have been built in Nova Scotia.
- Of the $19.8 million announced today, approximately $13.8 million is allocated through to 2025-2026 as part of the current Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement to help Nova Scotia reach our shared goal of building 9,500 new child care spaces by 2026.
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To date, over half of the provinces and territories are delivering regulated child care for an average of $10-a-day or less, including Quebec and the Yukon, which achieved this prior to the Canada-wide system. In all other provinces and territories, fees for regulated child care have been reduced by at least 50 per cent on average. Provinces and territories are working toward lowering fees for regulated child care to $10-a-day on average by March 2026.
- Canada-wide early learning and child care is saving families, per child, up to $6,000 a year in Nova Scotia, $13,700 in Alberta, $8,500 in Ontario, $6,900 in Saskatchewan, $6,600 in British Columbia, $6,300 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $4,170 in Prince Edward Island, $3,600 in New Brunswick, $2,610 in Manitoba, $7,300 in the Yukon, $9,120 in the Northwest Territories, and $14,300 in Nunavut.
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As part of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system, the Government of Canada is working with provinces and territories to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the country by March 2026 to increase access to affordable child care options for families, no matter where they live.
- To support this goal, the federal government previously announced the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. The Fund provides an additional $625 million to provinces and territories to support infrastructure projects for not-for-profit child care spaces in underserved communities, such as rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities.
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To give every child the best start in life, the federal government is also:
- Giving families more money through the Canada Child Benefit to help with the costs of raising their children and make a real difference in the lives of children in Canada. The Canada Child Benefit, which provides up to $7,437 per child per year, is indexed annually to keep up with the cost of living and has helped lift half a million children out of poverty since its launch in 2016.
- Improving access to dental health care for children under the age of 12 through the Canada Dental Benefit, and soon for children under 18 with the Canadian Dental Care Plan, because no one should have to choose between taking care of their kids’ teeth and putting food on the table.
- Creating a National School Food Program to ensure every child has the best start in life, with the food they need to learn and grow, no matter their circumstances.
- Supporting after-school learning with an investment of $67.5 million to help all Canadian students reach their full potential. After-school learning and supports play an important role in helping students succeed in their academic pursuits, especially for at-risk students.
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