Child-care fees have halved in 18 Canadian cities, report says. Who’s falling short?

Child-care fees have been cut in half in 18 big Canadian cities across all age groups, but some are still falling short on the federal target, according to a new report.

Child-care fees have been cut in half in 18 big Canadian cities across all age groups, but some are still falling short on meeting the federal government’s target, according to a new report.

Five jurisdictions — Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut — have already reached Ottawa’s long-term goal of $10-a-day-child care, three years in advance, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which conducts 11,000 telephone calls as part of its data collection, said in its annual report Thursday.

But some experts say there’s still more work to be done to make child care more accessible and inclusive.

The federal government signed separate, five-year funding agreements with provinces and territories in 2021, committing up to $30 billion toward the establishment of $10-a-day child care by 2025-26.

As part of that agreement, provincial and territorial government governments also promised to reduce daycare fees by 50 per cent by the end of 2022.

Provincial and territorial capitals as well big cities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, have successfully met that target or exceeded it.

“This is quite a win given the ambitious timeframe of this goal, 50 per cent reduction in fees,” said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“It was to happen within about a year and a half of the initial legislation being laid down. That’s very quick when it comes to a big national program like this,” he told Global News in an interview.