Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young families, including Millennial and Gen Z parents, the costs of child care can add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder to start and support a family, and as a result, parents-especially moms-often face impossible choices between their careers and child care fees.
Fairness for every generation means ensuring young parents-especially moms-don't have to make the difficult decision of starting a family or having a career. The government is taking action to make life cost less for young families, enable parents to join the workforce and increase their family income, and build a Canada where every generation can get ahead.
Already, the federal government's affordable child care system has all provinces and territories offering, or on track to offer, $10-a-day child care. This progress, made possible by nearly $40 billion in federal support, is making life more affordable for young families. Affordable child care has increased women's labour force participation to a record high of 87 per cent in Nova Scotia, and 85 per cent nationally. That means more families are bringing home more income and contributing to Canada's economic growth, while saving thousands of dollars on child care every year.
But more families need access to affordable child care.
That's why, today in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, joined the Honourable Becky Druhan, Nova Scotia's Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, to announce a federal investment of an additional $19.8 million over four years to help reach our goal of building 9,500 $10-a-day child care spaces in Nova Scotia by March 2026.
Today's investment to build more spaces in Nova Scotia through the new $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund will help more families save up to $6,000 per year, per child. This includes creating more spaces for underserved communities, including Indigenous, rural, and remote communities, as well as for children with disabilities and French language minority communities.
To build more spaces, help more families save thousands of dollars on child care, and ensure the next generation of parents don't have to choose between raising a family or having a career, Budget 2024 also includes:
- Launching a $1 billion Child Care Expansion Loan Program to help public and not-for-profit child care providers to build more child care spaces and renovate their existing child care centres;
- Expanding the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to early childhood educators who work in rural and remote communities. With a $48 million investment over four years, student loan forgiveness will increase the longer an educator works in a rural or remote area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the programs we're offering rural doctors and nurses;
- Increasing training for early childhood educators by investing $10 million over two years for Canada's Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to build up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care; and,
- Improving child care access for military families by investing $100 million to provide Canadian Armed Forces personnel and their families with better access to child care on bases across Canada.
In just three years, we've made incredible progress in building the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. Across the country, over 750,000 kids are already benefiting from affordable, high-quality child care, with some families saving up to $14,300 per child, per year. Alongside provinces and territories, we have also announced over 100,000 new spaces, well on our way to reaching our goal of creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.
Investing in affordable child care is about helping more families save thousands of dollars on child care and ensuring every child has the best start in life. The measures highlighted above are just some of the things that we're doing in Budget 2024 to build a fairer Canada for every generation. We're also building more homes, strengthening public health care, making life cost less, and growing the economy in a way that is shared by all-to make sure every generation has a fair chance at building a good middle class life.
