Ontario has reached a one-year extension on affordable child care
Critics say the government is still too far from its $10-a-day promise
With a March 2026 expiry date looming, the province has secured a one-year extension on Canada’s affordable child care program.
The federally subsidized program, which launched in 2022 with the government allocating $10.2 billion to Ontario, is structured to eventually reach its promise of $10 a day. Parents in Ontario currently pay an average of $19 a day, which is considered an interim step.
The extension comes as a relief to parents, as it means child care costs will remain low for at least another year. But critics of the program say the government has simply failed to meet its target.
“Parents across Ontario planned and budgeted based on the commitment that fees would drop to an average of $10 a day by March 2026,” said Rajean Hoilett, of the advocacy group Parents for Child Care, in a media release. “This extension deal leaves those families feeling misled and let down.”
In the same release, Carolyn Ferns, policy coordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, asked the provincial and federal governments to find a solution. “This one-year extension cannot mark the start of backtracking on $10 a day,” she said. “It must be the first step toward a stronger agreement, in which both governments step up to fully fund the high-quality, affordable child care system that Ontario families deserve.”
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra told the Canadian Press that Ottawa has committed $695 million to fund the extension but that it’s still not enough to reach $10 a day.
“This doesn’t bring us down to $10 on average. It maintains us at $19 on average over the next year and then we’ll continue to work on how we can bring it down together,” he said.
Related: “The teacher shortage is ruining Ontario’s education system—and our kids are paying the price”
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
