Federal gov’t announces child care expansion

The Government of Canada announced it was expanding the $10-a-day child-care program across the country on Thursday.

The government will provide $1 billion in low-cost loans, and student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early childhood educators.

“Today we are building on the $10-a-day child-care program that Saskatchewan is already participating in by announcing additional measures to support not only the construction of additional child-care spaces through an infrastructure announcement, but also with loan forgiveness for those students entering (early childhood education) training programs, as well as training itself,” Anita Anand, the federal treasury board president, said at a media event in Regina.

Anand said this includes the accessibility of training programs through government support.

“So three things – one, loan forgiveness, two, training (and) three, infrastructure. That is an across-the-board, comprehensive approach to continue to support child care in this country,” she said.

Anand said the federal government wanted to reduce the costs associated with entering ECE as an occupation through legislative amendments.

She said it wanted to expand the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to include ECE starting in 2024-25.

Anand said the total amount of the loan forgiveness will increase the longer the individual remains in the profession and the longer they remain in a rural and remote area.

“I’m super-excited to announce that budget 2024 proposes $10 million to Employment and Social Development Canada, specifically to train early childhood educators,” she said.

The feds also announced an additional $60 million in non-repayable grants for public and non-profit child-care providers to build new spaces.

Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said this is a measure that will help fight against waitlists for child care, which he said were “too long.”

“For many organizations – often these are small organizations – the process of actually going through the application process with the federal government can be quite onerous and so we have also set aside money to actually work with these organizations to be able to make the applications that will allow them to access the money,” he told reporters.

Wilkinson said the government is getting the ball rolling so those applications can start soon.

He said that government is taking action in response to the concerns of parents and care providers.

Wilkinson, who was raised in Saskatoon, said that when he was growing up, it was expected that if someone worked hard and saved wisely, they could afford a home and have a decent life.

“In the context of some of the challenging affordability issues that folks are facing today, for too many, that promise is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve,” he said.

Wilkinson highlighted child care as one of the costs that is difficult for people to keep up with.