Feds, New Brunswick sign child care agreement

Will help create 3,400 new licensed early learning and child care spaces by 2026

Feds, New Brunswick sign child care agreement

The federal government and New Brunswick have signed an agreement that will support an average of $10-per-day child care in the province that will significantly reduce costs for families.

Under the agreement, Ottawa will invest almost $492 million and New Brunswick will contribute $53 million over the next five years. This will help cut parent fees for children under the age of six in regulated child care by 50 per cent by the end of 2022.

"All families should have access to affordable child care,” says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “[This] is an important step forward to delivering on our Canada-wide early learning and child care system, which will create jobs, grow the middle class, and give our kids the best start in life."

The federal government announced in December 2020 that it was looking to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

The latest agreement will also help create 3,400 new licensed early learning and child care spaces by the end of March 2026, including 500 spaces by March 2023, in New Brunswick.

The agreement helps families, says New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, “but we're also able to help support small businesses and build on successful programs that have increased the quality of learning in facilities.”

Earlier this year, the federal government reached similar agreements with British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Ottawa and Quebec also reached an asymmetric agreement to strengthen the early learning and child care system in the province.

Nearly half of men and women say that they are unable to focus on work while their kids are home, according to a survey by LinkedIn. And female workers have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic compared with their male counterparts, according to an earlier report.

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