New national child-care system to secure long-term role for Liberals

Families Minister Karina Gould introduced legislation Thursday with the goal of strengthening child care in Canada and securing a long-term role in the new daycare system.

The proposed legislation, known as Bill C-35, details the federal government’s commitment to long-term funding for provinces and Indigenous Peoples, as well as the guidelines for those funds. It does not include any specific financial pledges.

The Trudeau government created a national daycare system, which would reduce daycare fees by 50 per cent by the end of 2022 and down to around $10 per day by 2026.

The federal budget in 2021 promised $30 billion in new spending on the national child-care system over five years, as well as an additional $9.2 billion annually following that.

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Establishing the national child-care system could potentially make it more difficult to take apart if a different party wins the next federal election.

The Liberal government had pledged to introduce the legislation by the end of 2022 in the confidence-and-supply agreement that would see the NDP support the minority government on key votes in the House of Commons to prevent an election before 2025.

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