Ford says he wants 'same deal' as Quebec on national child-care plan

TORONTO -

Premier Doug Ford says that he wants the “same deal” as Quebec when it comes to the Trudeau government’s national child-care plan with “minimal strings” attached to what would amount to billions of dollars in federal funding.

Ford made the comment during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon as his government continued to face questions about why Ontario is one of only two provinces – the other being New Brunswick – which have yet to sign on to the national accord.

“We need a good deal. We want the same deal as our friends, and I call them our friends because one of my closest allies is (Quebec Premier) François Legault, I want the same deal that he has. He has minimum, minimum strings attached and they are getting a lot more per capita,” he said. “I am not going to get the short end of the stick on this.”

The federal government has said that the money distributed to provinces as part of its $30 billion national child-care plan must go towards cutting average fees in half by the end of 2022 en route to achieving $10-a-day child care by 2026.

But because the Quebec government already has a heavily subsidized provincial child-care system with the lowest fees in the country, it is being given its share of the money – about $6 billion – with fewer conditions.

Asked about the discrepancy during a press conference to announce a deal with the Alberta provincial government on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that it is “not a question of” flexibility being given to Quebec and not other provinces.

In fact, he said that if other provinces already offered child care at an average of $8 a day like Quebec, his government would have a “similar approach.”

In Ontario the average child-care cost per child is $12,800 a year or about $53 a day. Fees are, however, much higher in Toronto where the median infant fee is more than $22,000 a year.

“Look we will get a deal done but I am not going to get a deal done just for the sake of making a bad deal that is for sure,” Ford told reporters on Tuesday. “We need to stick to our guns and I need the support of the local mayors to be united and I need the support of the local MPs, especially the Liberal MPs. I am not going to be shortchanged on this deal.”

‘SENDING LETTERS BACK AND FORTH IS NEVER THE ANSWER,’ TORY SAYS

The federal government is offering Ontario approximately $10 billion over five years to lower the cost of child care but Education Minister Stephen Lecce has suggested that the number should be about $3.6 billion more than that to take account of the money the province invests in full-day kindergarten for four and five year olds, something that most other provinces don’t do.

Lecce also questioned whether the funding will actually reduce child care costs to an average of $10 per day.

On Tuesday Ford said that he remains confident that a deal can be struck.

However, in an interview with CP24 earlier in the day Toronto Mayor John Tory seemed to suggest that both levels of government are not doing enough to secure that deal.

“I think what's required here, given the importance of child care to people in terms of their financial well being but also in terms of the economy and social well being of the city - is that they just get into a room,” he said. “Sending letters back and forth is never the answer. Look, I send letters too and I send emails but it's never the way to get a deal. You know, just like anything else in life, you got to sit down in a room together and agree you're not going to come out until you’re done.”

Lecce has said that the province will provide the federal government with “updated modelling” which will illustrate some of the perceived shortfalls in the program.

That said advocates for affordable child care are taking issue with the slow pace of negotiations, which they say has left working parents to “suffer.”

“When you hear Minister Lecce talking and saying ‘Oh, it doesn't take into account full day kindergarten.’ Well, of course not. You know, this money was never meant to pay off provinces for programs that they already have in place,” Carolyn Ferns, who is the policy coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, told CP24 on Tuesday.

“The money is to help make child-care fees more affordable for families, to address the workforce shortage by paying early childhood educators more and to expand child-care spaces around the province. It's supposed to help the bottom line for family’s; not the ministry’s bottom lines.”