Liberals set to introduce promised child-care legislation | 24CA News
Families Minister Karina Gould is anticipated to introduce laws at this time to strengthen little one care in Canada, which is more likely to embody 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 lower daycare charges by a mean of fifty per cent by the top of this yr — and right 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 legislation to strengthen and protect a high-quality Canada-wide child-care system.”
Earlier this yr, Gould mentioned the invoice would enshrine the rules that provinces and territories agreed to in funding agreements with Ottawa, together with the pledge to chop 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 help 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 spaces.”
Enshrining little one care in regulation
The Liberal authorities of former prime minister Paul Martin signed child-care offers with the provinces with the aim of making a nationwide daycare system in 2005, however Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cancelled the agreements after he got here to energy the subsequent yr.
Enshrining the position of the federal authorities within the nationwide child-care system might be one method to make it more durable to dismantle ought to one other celebration win the subsequent election.
A session doc obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this yr steered the laws might decide to “ongoing collaboration” between the federal, provincial and territorial governments over the system, together with a pledge for “sustained federal funding.”
It additionally steered laws might require annual public reviews and a nationwide advisory council as a part of “various mechanisms” to make sure federal accountability.
At the identical time, the paper steered the laws wouldn’t “impose requirements” on provinces, territories or Indigenous Peoples, or set circumstances for funding outlined in one-on-one offers.
Those funding agreements did embody provisions that might enable the federal authorities to make use of the stick of withholding funding if sure benchmarks go unmet, however Gould has beforehand steered the Liberals would attempt to keep away from taking that strategy.
“Each province and territory has publicly committed to meeting these benchmarks,” Gould mentioned in a March interview with The Canadian Press.
“So not only do they have to explain it to the federal government if they don’t, but they also have to explain it to the people, the citizens of their jurisdiction.”
