Federal funding for $10aDay Child Care plan extended to 2031 in eleven provinces and territories

Child Care Now, Canada’s national child care advocacy association, congratulates Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal government on successfully extending until 2031 the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care funding agreements with 11 of Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial agreements.

Only the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan refused to safeguard federal funding for the $10 a Day Child Care Plan until 2031.

“Child care advocates across the country are celebrating the extension of the federal funding agreements beyond the March 31, 2026 expiry of the current agreements,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now.

“We are particularly pleased that the federal transfer payments in support of the $10a Day child care plan will be increased by 3 per cent each year starting in 2027,” said Ballantyne.

“Child care advocates will continue to call for additional funds to expand access to affordable licensed child care and address the ongoing recruitment and retention of early childhood educators, but having a built-in mechanism to increase funding every year going forward will give those providing services good protection against cost increases.”

The new funding agreements reflect the almost universal consensus among governments in Canada that a publicly funded high quality early learning and child care system is essential to the economic security and stability of communities, and that the $10aDay child care program must become a permanent part of Canada’s infrastructure.

“It will take many years to build a fully universal high quality child care system in Canada and while the foundation was laid by Justin Trudeau’s government, any future federal government that tries to undermine, weaken or do away with publicly funded universal child care will face a barrage of opposition especially in these difficult and uncertain times” added Ballantyne.

“The $10aDay child care plan is a Made in Canada plan that must be protected, expanded and strengthened to help our country at all times but especially during these turbulent times,” said Ballantyne.

“Canada’s growing early learning and child care sector is already creating tens of thousands of new jobs across Canada, it is helping workers with young children stay employed and allowing them, especially mothers, to increase their paid working hours,” she said. “To harm the plan now would cause far-reaching damage to our country.”

According to the federal government’s announcement, the funding extensions include the final year (2026-27) of the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund, which supports the construction of new child care centres in underserved communities.

The federal government also reported that because of the $10aDay program, 900,000 children across Canada are getting affordable, high-quality child care, and families who have access to licensed programs are saving up to $16,200 per child, per year.  

Now that the funding agreements are in place, Child Care Now will focus on convincing governments to put in place comprehensive strategies to expand non-profit and public child care services in every community to meet the high demand for $10aDay child care.

Child Care Now will also push for comprehensive strategies to expand and support the early childhood education workforce including better compensation and more opportunities for both pre-service training and professional development.