Excerpted from news release
Child care advocates applaud PEI child care agreement–the first reached with a provincial Conservative government
Jul 27, 2021 | News
The Government of Canada’s plan to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care is working, said Canada’s child care advocacy association after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and PEI Premier Dennis King announced they had reached an agreement to expand regulated child care, bring down parent fees to $10 a day by 2024, and increase the wages of those who work in child care in order to recruit and retain qualified early childhood educators.
“The federal Liberal government has announced four child care agreements this month–one with a NDP provincial government, two with Liberal governments, and now one with a provincial Conservative government and each agreement includes the same essential elements for building a high quality, inclusive system of early learning and child care for all,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now, Canada’s national child care advocacy organization.
In addition to bringing down parent fees, the Canada-PEI child care agreement will increase access by expanding the net number of regulated child care spaces.
“We are pleased the agreement commits to developing a strategy to expand not-for-profit and public child care programs,” Ballantyne said. “Expanding child care options that meet the diverse needs of children and parents is not easily done and we are glad that the federal and provincial governments are taking steps to get it right.”