EXCERPTS
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Prince Edward Island will reach $10 a day child care by the end of 2024 as part of a $121.3 million agreement with the federal government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was at the Carrefour de l’Isle-Saint-Jean in Charlottetown on July 27 to make the announcement along with Ahmed Hussen, minister of families, children and social development, Premier Dennis King and Natalie Jameson, provincial minister of education and lifelong learning.
Though Trudeau said the federal government laid out what they felt was an extremely ambitious timeline of five years, the provincial government is doing them one better.
“Today, I can announce that we have signed an agreement to provide $10 a day child care for kids under six. And we’re going to get there, Premier King tells me, within three years.”
The announcement comes after deals were reached in the past weeks in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia, as well as the Yukon.
The federal funds will come over five years, but before that goal is reached, Islanders can expect to see child care costs reduced to $15 dollars a day by the end of next year, the creation of another 452 child care spaces over the next two years, as well as an included $3.6 million to support educators, said Hussen in a phone interview with the SaltWire Network before the announcement.
Without (early childhood educators), obviously we can’t increase spaces or ensure quality, so there is a workforce strategy there as well and a focus on supporting our early childhood educators.”
“This will make life more affordable, it’ll create good jobs and it will help parents, especially moms, get back to work while giving kids the level playing field they need to succeed in their first years of school.”
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Those supports for early childhood educators include the province increasing wages as of October 2021, introducing post-secondary education grants and an incentive grant to get workers who have left the sector back.
All this together will help strengthen an already strong child care system in P.E.I., said Trudeau.
“This will make life more affordable, it’ll create good jobs and it will help parents, especially moms, get back to work while giving kids the level playing field they need to succeed in their first years of school.”
The visit by Trudeau and Hussen follows appearances in the province July 26 by federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and July 22 Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in what some pundits are speculating are campaign-style stops across the country ahead of an election call for the late summer or early fall.