Excerpted from article
(...)
Canada now has its second national daycare program, officially termed the Canada-wide Early Learning and Childcare (ELCC) system. Announced in the April 2021 budget, the federal government’s plan far exceeds what even the most hopeful advocates had been promoting as recently as 2020: it promises $30-billion in new federal investments between 2021 and 2026 and thereafter over $8-billion yearly in new federal support.
(...)
Alberta was one of the three Conservative provincial governments that declined to sign bilateral agreements prior to the 2021 election campaign. This might have been a partisan move to bolster the electoral fortunes of the federal Conservative Party. Yet at least in the case of Premier Jason Kenney’s government, four more-fundamental factors were behind its initial lukewarm-to-hostile response to the Trudeau government’s plan: first, rejection of the universality principle for social welfare programs; second, resistance to government provision of daycare and so-called lack of choice; third, the United Conservative Party’s own rushed and misguided policies on childcare; and finally, Kenney’s long-standing Western Canadian grievances with Canadian federalism
Read more online.