Excerpted from the Speech from the Throne:
EXPANDING CHILD CARE
The pandemic shone a light on how important reliable and affordable child care is.
It gives kids an early start on the path to learning and it helps parents return to work and pursue opportunities.
For too long, investing in child care was not the priority it should have been.
Many parents felt left behind by rising fees and long waiting lists.
Your government has been working hard to change that.
Families are already benefiting from thousands of new spaces and saving up to $19,000 a year in lower fees.
Your government will build on the progress made by more than doubling $10-a-day spaces and reducing average fees by as much as 50% by the end of this year.
Our province is closer than ever to having the first new social program in a generation.
A future where child care is a core service – available to every family that wants it, when they need it, at a price they can afford.
As part of that work, your government will move responsibility for child care into the Ministry of Education this year, which will manage child care programs through new regional offices.
This new, regional approach will allow your government to better understand local needs as it continues to build more spaces for families.
Over time, this will bring certainty and reliability to child care.
The same way that parents feel knowing that they have a public school to send their kids to.