Doug Ford says Ontario close to child-care deal; province is last to strike an agreement
Ontario is close to a child-care deal with the federal government, Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday, as his province remained the only jurisdiction without a deal with Ottawa for $10-a-day child care.
Ford told radio station Q104 Kenora that he is confident Ontario will reach an agreement.
"We're very, very close," he said. "I'm confident we're going to strike a deal that's going to be beneficial for everyone in Ontario."
His comments come after a deal announced Monday with Nunavut leaves Ontario as the last holdout on a child-care deal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that he is optimistic the government can reach a deal with Ontario.
"We have been ready to reach an agreement with Ontario for many, many months now," he said. "The frame of the agreement has been set out for a long time."
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Monday that the province is pushing for more than the $10.2 billion on offer from Ottawa to ensure that fees can be reduced to $10 a day since Ontario families pay some of the highest prices in the country for care.
Lecce said that Ontario is also making the case that families who send their children to either not-for-profit or independent child-care settings should benefit from the fee reductions.
The education minister has also previously said that he wants to ensure that any deal will last longer than five years, and that Ottawa's offer doesn't take into account the $3.6 billion a year that the province spends on full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-old children.
Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould said Monday that the agreements are specifically about early learning and child care.
"We've been very clear from the beginning that kindergarten is beyond the scope of the agreement," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.