Households Minister Karina Gould is anticipated to introduce laws Thursday to strengthen little one care in Canada, which is prone to embrace an effort to safe a long-term position for Ottawa within the new nationwide daycare system.
The Liberal authorities introduced in a nationwide child-care plan that might reduce daycare charges by a mean of fifty per cent by the top of this yr – and all the way down to a mean of $10 per day by 2026.
The 2021 federal funds pledged $30 billion in new spending on the nationwide child-care system over 5 years, with one other $9.2 billion yearly coming after that.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later tasked Gould with introducing “federal child-care laws to strengthen and defend a high-quality Canada-wide child-care system.”
Earlier this yr, Gould stated the invoice would enshrine the ideas that provinces and territories agreed to in funding agreements with Ottawa, together with the pledge to chop mum or dad charges and create extra areas.
The Liberals promised to introduce the laws by the top of this yr within the confidence-and-supply settlement that might see the New Democrats assist the minority authorities by to 2025.
That settlement specifies the laws would guarantee “that child-care agreements have long-term protected funding that prioritizes non-profit and public areas.”
The Liberal authorities of former prime minister Paul Martin signed child-care offers with the provinces with the purpose of making a nationwide daycare system in 2005, however Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cancelled the agreements after he got here to energy the following yr.
Enshrining the position of the federal authorities within the nationwide child-care system might be one method to make it tougher to dismantle ought to one other celebration win the following election.
A session doc obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this yr advised the laws may decide to “ongoing collaboration” between the federal, provincial and territorial governments over the system, together with a pledge for “sustained federal funding.”
It additionally advised laws may require annual public reviews and a nationwide advisory council as a part of “varied mechanisms” to make sure federal accountability.
On the similar time, the paper advised the laws wouldn’t “impose necessities” on provinces, territories or Indigenous Peoples, or set circumstances for funding outlined in one-on-one offers.
These funding agreements did embrace provisions that might permit the federal authorities to make use of the stick of withholding funding if sure benchmarks go unmet, however Gould has beforehand advised the Liberals would attempt to keep away from taking that method.
“Every province and territory has publicly dedicated to assembly these benchmarks,” Gould stated in a March interview with The Canadian Press.
“So not solely have they got to clarify it to the federal authorities in the event that they don’t, however additionally they have to clarify it to the folks, the residents of their jurisdiction.”
© 2022 The Canadian Press
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