Ottawa, N.W.T. announce $10-a-day child-care deal
CBC
The N.W.T. has signed on to the federal government's child-care deal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the deal Wednesday in Ottawa alongside Premier Caroline Cochrane and MP Michael McLeod.
Trudeau said the deal will cut the cost of child care for children under six years old in half in the Northwest Territories and that, within five years, the average cost of child care will be $10 a day.
The median monthly cost of child care in Yellowknife in 2020 was $990 a month per child.
"Families in Yellowknife will save up to $9,500 a year with this agreement," said Trudeau.
The deal includes federal funding of over $51 million over the next five years.
Trudeau also said the deal will create 300 new child care spaces in the territory by the end of March 2026.
Those spaces will be provided exclusively by not-for-profit providers, including community and non-profit organizations as well as family day home providers.
Cochrane, a former social worker, said the deal will help transform the early learning and child-care system in the territory.
"This agreement actually allows us to pay people properly, it allows us to get the education so that people aren't just babysitting our children, they're actually looking at the development aspects that they need to develop for children to thrive," she said.
She added there are long waiting lists in some communities, but the agreement changes that.
"This is the turning point and I am looking forward to, at the end of next year and at the end of five years, to see what will come," said Cochrane.
She also said that in some instances, the agreement will provide access to day care for the first time in some N.W.T. communities.
Trudeau said a wage grid and certification process will be created to help attract and retain early childhood educators.
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