Story by Peter Zimonjic
CBC
Median child care fees for toddlers in Calgary are the second highest in the country at $838 a month, behind Richmond B.C. at $905 a month, and ahead of Toronto at $725.© Steve Bruce/CBC
Cities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador are leading the country on offering $10-a-day child-care services, but the availability of spaces remains an obstacle, says a new survey.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Martha Friendly, director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, published the "Measuring Matters" survey Thursday. It's the first survey from the centre to assess fees paid by parents nationwide since the federal government's new child-care policy took effect.
"Overall, the findings related to child-care fees by city and age group show that Canada is making solid progress in offering more affordable child care," the report said.
Researchers surveyed child-care centres in 37 cities across the country — five cities in Quebec (which already had child-care fees below $10 a day) and 32 cities in provinces and territories that joined the federal child-care program.
It found that in 18 of the 32 cities, median child care fees had been reduced by more than half. Another eight to 10 cities saw fees drop by 40 to 47 per cent, depending on the level of care.
In April 2021, the federal government offered provinces and territories roughly $30 billion over five years to help them offset the costs of a national early learning and child-care program.
The goal was to cut the cost of child care in half in the first year and then bring daily fees down to $10 a day per child by 2026. The plan also calls for creating 250,000 new child-care spots by 2026.
Median child care fees for toddlers in Calgary are the second highest in the country at $838 a month, behind Richmond B.C. at $905 a month, and ahead of Toronto at $725.© Steve Bruce/CBC
Cities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador are leading the country on offering $10-a-day child-care services, but the availability of spaces remains an obstacle, says a new survey.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Martha Friendly, director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, published the "Measuring Matters" survey Thursday. It's the first survey from the centre to assess fees paid by parents nationwide since the federal government's new child-care policy took effect.
"Overall, the findings related to child-care fees by city and age group show that Canada is making solid progress in offering more affordable child care," the report said.
Researchers surveyed child-care centres in 37 cities across the country — five cities in Quebec (which already had child-care fees below $10 a day) and 32 cities in provinces and territories that joined the federal child-care program.
It found that in 18 of the 32 cities, median child care fees had been reduced by more than half. Another eight to 10 cities saw fees drop by 40 to 47 per cent, depending on the level of care.
In April 2021, the federal government offered provinces and territories roughly $30 billion over five years to help them offset the costs of a national early learning and child-care program.
The goal was to cut the cost of child care in half in the first year and then bring daily fees down to $10 a day per child by 2026. The plan also calls for creating 250,000 new child-care spots by 2026.
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In June, the federal government told provinces and territories how much of $625 million in infrastructure funding they would be getting to create those spaces.
Fees remain high in Alberta, Ontario, B.C.
The Measuring Matters survey has been conducted every year since 2014. This is the first to assess the impact of the new child-care policy on fees.
Researchers conducting the survey made about 11,000 calls to child-care centres across the country to track the median fees in those cities for infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children.
The survey classifies children under 18 months or two years of age as infants, children 18 months to three years of age as toddlers, and children aged three to five who are not yet in kindergarten as preschoolers.
The report found that in Newfoundland and Labrador, fees fell to $10 for all three categories of children by the end of 2022, well before the 2026 target date. Saskatchewan also hit the benchmark in 2022, while Manitoba hit it earlier this year.
Nunavut also hit the $10-a-day target in 2022, bringing median fees in Iqaluit down to just $217 per month in all three categories in 2023. That's a drop of 82 per cent for toddlers and preschoolers, and of 83 per cent for infant care.
Median child care fees in Quebec actually went up over the survey period. The province already had its own child-care program limiting fees to $8.25 a day when Ottawa introduced its program. Even with the 7.3 per cent increase in fees, which brings them up to $8.85, child care in Quebec is still the least expensive in Canada.
While not all provinces met the $10 a day benchmark or cut fees by 50 per cent, all provinces and territories managed to reduce fees for child care significantly, the report said.
Alberta managed to cut fees by between 45 to 48 per cent, depending on the level of care.
In Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge, the only three cities in Alberta that were surveyed, fees dropped by 24 to 48 per cent, depending on the location and level of care.
Median child-care fees for toddlers in Calgary dropped from $1,100 during the survey period to $838 a month. That was still the second-highest level recorded in any city in Canada, after Richmond B.C. ($905 a month) and ahead of Toronto ($725 a month).
Calgary recorded the highest costs in the country for preschoolers, at $810 a month (down from $1,075), followed closely by Richmond B.C. at $800 a month.
For infants, child-care fees in Calgary dropped by 40 per cent to $780 a month, and by as much as 48 per cent in Edmonton, bringing the median price down to $555 a month from $1,075.
Infant care was most expensive in Richmond B.C. and Toronto, at just over $900 a month. Markham came in third at $818 per month.
Spaces remain an issue
The report says that if no new spaces are created, the reduced fees will simply increase the number of people on waiting lists for child care spaces — and the national child-care program will have failed.
To determine capacity in the system, researchers asked child-care centres if they had space to accept a new child "in the next week."
"Of the 30 cities with data, half (14) had little to no spare capacity for an additional preschool-aged child," the report said. "For infants and toddlers, little or no spare capacity was reported in 22 of the 30 cities."
The report said that even in Edmonton and the Ontario cities of Richmond Hill, Windsor and Vaughn, the four municipalities with the most access to unused capacity, only one third of child-care centres contacted said they could enrol a full-time child within a week.
The report's authors said that all provincial and territorial governments should follow the examples of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, P.E.I., New Brunswick, B.C. and Nunavut by cutting net fees to a maximum of $10 a day.
The report also asks governments to develop strategies to increase the number of child care spaces and boost wages for child-care workers.
Child-care fees have halved in 18 Canadian cities, report says. Who’s falling short?
Story by Saba Aziz •
Experts say there's too few workers for too high a demand for child-care in Manitoba.
Story by Saba Aziz •
Experts say there's too few workers for too high a demand for child-care in Manitoba.
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Putting your child in daycare has become much more affordable
Some Canadian provinces have daycare deserts, study finds
Child-care fees have been cut in half in 18 big Canadian cities across all age groups, but some are still falling short on meeting the federal government’s target, according to a new report.
Five jurisdictions — Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut — have already reached Ottawa’s long-term goal of $10-a-day-child care, three years in advance, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which conducts 11,000 telephone calls as part of its data collection, said in its annual report Thursday.
But some experts say there's still more work to be done to make child care more accessible and inclusive.
The federal government signed separate, five-year funding agreements with provinces and territories in 2021, committing up to $30 billion toward the establishment of $10-a-day child care by 2025-26.
As part of that agreement, provincial and territorial government governments also promised to reduce daycare fees by 50 per cent by the end of 2022.
Provincial and territorial capitals as well big cities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, have successfully met that target or exceeded it.
“This is quite a win given the ambitious timeframe of this goal, 50 per cent reduction in fees,” said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“It was to happen within about a year and a half of the initial legislation being laid down. That's very quick when it comes to a big national program like this,” he told Global News in an interview.
Video: Alberta government taking steps to create more private child-care spaces
Big cities in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have not been able to slash their child-care fees in half, the report showed.
Macdonald said both P.E.I and Alberta have low-income subsidies in place that they’re counting toward a 50 per cent reduction, which partly explains why they're falling short of hitting the federal goal.
In British Columbia, the picture is “more mixed,” he said, with Kelowna and Vancouver close to hitting the 50 per cent target, while others are further away.
“In part, the reason for that is in Vancouver, for instance, the province has been pushing $10-a-day spaces where they are expanding their small $ 10-a-day program that brought fees down in Vancouver, but the same sort of thing isn't happening in other places like Surrey or Burnaby.”
Quebec, which reached an asymmetric agreement with Ottawa in 2021 to receive $6 billion over five years to support care in the province, had child-care fees below $10 per day in 2019. It was the only province to see daycare fees go up this year for all groups compared with 2019.
Despite that, Quebec cities have the lowest monthly child-care fees in the country right now, at $192 for infants and toddlers.
Video: Ontario to boost early childhood educator wages in bid to ease staff shortage
Richmond, B.C., and Toronto have the most expensive infant care for the under 18-month age group, costing a median of over $900 per month, the report said.
Richmond also has the highest child-care fees for toddlers aged one and a half to three years, with a median of $905 per month, followed by Calgary with $808 a month and Toronto with $725 a month.
For preschoolers, aged 2.5 to five years, Calgary is the most expensive city at $810 a month, followed by $800 a month in Richmond and $600 a month in Oakville, Ont., Vaughan, Ont., Toronto, Burnaby and Surrey, the CCPA report showed.
Provinces and territories have taken different approaches to getting their fees down.
More than half of the jurisdictions — Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I., New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut — now have set fees, which means that all parents pay the same amount, oftentimes the same fees for all age groups.
The rest, in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories, are using market fees, reducing them either by a flat dollar amount or a percentage.
“I think what's important going forward is we continue to move towards the set fee model that half of the provinces and territories are at, where all parents pay the same amount across all age groups and then ratchet those fees down to the long-term goal, three years from now of $10 a day,” Macdonald said.
As Canadian families continue to grapple with a high cost of living, the lower daycare fees have offered some relief to parents across the country.
But there is still work to be done to make child care more accessible and inclusive, said Marni Flaherty, interim CEO of the Canadian Childcare Federation.
Putting your child in daycare has become much more affordable
Some Canadian provinces have daycare deserts, study finds
Child-care fees have been cut in half in 18 big Canadian cities across all age groups, but some are still falling short on meeting the federal government’s target, according to a new report.
Five jurisdictions — Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut — have already reached Ottawa’s long-term goal of $10-a-day-child care, three years in advance, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which conducts 11,000 telephone calls as part of its data collection, said in its annual report Thursday.
But some experts say there's still more work to be done to make child care more accessible and inclusive.
The federal government signed separate, five-year funding agreements with provinces and territories in 2021, committing up to $30 billion toward the establishment of $10-a-day child care by 2025-26.
As part of that agreement, provincial and territorial government governments also promised to reduce daycare fees by 50 per cent by the end of 2022.
Provincial and territorial capitals as well big cities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, have successfully met that target or exceeded it.
“This is quite a win given the ambitious timeframe of this goal, 50 per cent reduction in fees,” said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“It was to happen within about a year and a half of the initial legislation being laid down. That's very quick when it comes to a big national program like this,” he told Global News in an interview.
Video: Alberta government taking steps to create more private child-care spaces
Big cities in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have not been able to slash their child-care fees in half, the report showed.
Macdonald said both P.E.I and Alberta have low-income subsidies in place that they’re counting toward a 50 per cent reduction, which partly explains why they're falling short of hitting the federal goal.
In British Columbia, the picture is “more mixed,” he said, with Kelowna and Vancouver close to hitting the 50 per cent target, while others are further away.
“In part, the reason for that is in Vancouver, for instance, the province has been pushing $10-a-day spaces where they are expanding their small $ 10-a-day program that brought fees down in Vancouver, but the same sort of thing isn't happening in other places like Surrey or Burnaby.”
Quebec, which reached an asymmetric agreement with Ottawa in 2021 to receive $6 billion over five years to support care in the province, had child-care fees below $10 per day in 2019. It was the only province to see daycare fees go up this year for all groups compared with 2019.
Despite that, Quebec cities have the lowest monthly child-care fees in the country right now, at $192 for infants and toddlers.
Video: Ontario to boost early childhood educator wages in bid to ease staff shortage
Richmond, B.C., and Toronto have the most expensive infant care for the under 18-month age group, costing a median of over $900 per month, the report said.
Richmond also has the highest child-care fees for toddlers aged one and a half to three years, with a median of $905 per month, followed by Calgary with $808 a month and Toronto with $725 a month.
For preschoolers, aged 2.5 to five years, Calgary is the most expensive city at $810 a month, followed by $800 a month in Richmond and $600 a month in Oakville, Ont., Vaughan, Ont., Toronto, Burnaby and Surrey, the CCPA report showed.
Provinces and territories have taken different approaches to getting their fees down.
More than half of the jurisdictions — Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I., New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut — now have set fees, which means that all parents pay the same amount, oftentimes the same fees for all age groups.
The rest, in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories, are using market fees, reducing them either by a flat dollar amount or a percentage.
“I think what's important going forward is we continue to move towards the set fee model that half of the provinces and territories are at, where all parents pay the same amount across all age groups and then ratchet those fees down to the long-term goal, three years from now of $10 a day,” Macdonald said.
As Canadian families continue to grapple with a high cost of living, the lower daycare fees have offered some relief to parents across the country.
But there is still work to be done to make child care more accessible and inclusive, said Marni Flaherty, interim CEO of the Canadian Childcare Federation.
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“The investment federally is awesome and the concept of $10 a day is awesome, but we do have to start to focus more so on building a system,” she said in an interview with Global News.
“We have to start to focus on the workforce and then as part of expansion, improve quality for children and families,."
With the fees reducing, the wait-lists for daycare spots are also getting bigger, she said.
In addition to adding more daycare facilities, hiring and retaining staff is another challenge, Macdonald said.
“One of the big challenges in terms of building out spaces isn't only properly planning where those spaces will be built, but who will staff them and how do we keep those folks in the sector longer term,” he said.
-- with files from The Canadian Press
“The investment federally is awesome and the concept of $10 a day is awesome, but we do have to start to focus more so on building a system,” she said in an interview with Global News.
“We have to start to focus on the workforce and then as part of expansion, improve quality for children and families,."
With the fees reducing, the wait-lists for daycare spots are also getting bigger, she said.
In addition to adding more daycare facilities, hiring and retaining staff is another challenge, Macdonald said.
“One of the big challenges in terms of building out spaces isn't only properly planning where those spaces will be built, but who will staff them and how do we keep those folks in the sector longer term,” he said.
-- with files from The Canadian Press
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