Celebrating progress on the $10-a-day plan

The NDP, the labour movement and child care advocates have fought for decades for a universal, affordable, high-quality national early learning and child care system.

Now, $10-a-day child care is a reality in most provinces and territories, with the remaining ones on track to reach $10-a-day services by March 2026.

The $10-a-day plan:

has already helped make licensed child care more affordable for nearly one million families;
has already funded 150,000  new child care spaces;
has provided funding to provinces to improve wages and working conditions in the sector;  
has given financial relief to workers and families during a cost-of-living crisis.

This plan is driving historic gains in workforce participation among mothers with young children and contributed $32 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024 alone.

We need to stand on guard for child care

As Canada faces economic uncertainty in the face of Trump’s tariffs, dismantling this plan would put workers, families, communities, and the broader economy at risk. Reliable, affordable, high-quality child care is more essential than ever. 

To ensure all children benefit from publicly-funded, high-quality early learning and child care, we need:

Commitment from all political parties to maintain and strengthen the $10-a-day child care plan.
More public funding to significantly improve the working conditions and compensation of early learning and child care workers. 
Public planning and capital funding to increase the supply of non-profit and public child care programs.

The NDP: A strong ally

Canada’s New Democrats have a longstanding commitment to strengthening public services like child care and advocating for the workers who deliver them. 

Jagmeet Singh and the NDP used their power in Parliament to pass Canada’s first federal child care legislation, safeguarding long-term federal funding for the $10-a-day plan. They fought to ensure the law prioritizes public and non-profit child care. 

Jagmeet Singh and the NDP are committed to creating more public and non-profit spaces so that all families can access high-quality, $10-a-day child care. 

Jagmeet Singh and the NDP listen to child care workers, and support better pay and working conditions across the sector. 

$10-a-day at risk with Conservatives and Liberals

Last time the Conservatives were in power, their first act was to cancel federal-provincial child care agreements. Instead of affordable, accessible, high-quality child care, Conservatives sent out $100 cheques every month – which barely made a dent in the costs for parents.
Every year since 2021 when the $10-a-day plan was announced, the entire Conservative caucus has voted against its funding.  

While Pierre Poilievre claims that no child currently enrolled will lose their $10-a-day spot, he refuses to commit to a long-term future for the plan. 
Pierre Poilievre intends to open the floodgates to more for-profit child care, putting profits before quality and working conditions. 
Mark Carney says he will keep the current $10-a-day plan. However, he has not committed to creating more spaces or keeping profit out of child care. Given his background as a wealthy banker with deep ties to private investors, we should be concerned. 
Mark Carney hasn’t even acknowledged the challenges faced by early learning and child care workers. 

Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre can’t be trusted.

Early learning and child care is at the heart of healthy communities in a strong economy, and must be funded by governments. It deserves the same recognition as public education.

Ongoing challenges

Lack of spaces

As more families can afford child care under the $10-a-day plan, demand is rising while available spaces remain insufficient, leading to long waitlists.  

Workforce issues

Child care workers remain undervalued, causing a workforce shortage and limiting the growth of early learning programs.

There is no national workforce strategy for early learning and child care, and progress on improving working conditions remains uneven across the country. Some provinces still refuse to implement a wage grid that would raise the floor for all workers, and only a few have introduced sector-wide pension plans and extended health benefits. 

For-profit threats

Some federal funding is subsidizing for-profit child care, allowing  these operators to expand based on profitability rather than on community needs. For-profit operators always prioritize profit over wages and working conditions, exacerbating  workforce challenges.