Premier Kathleen Wynne has unveiled free child care for preschoolers in a $2.2 billion budget boost that is the cornerstone of the Liberals’ spring re-election platform.

Wynne announced the move — which covers licensed spots for children from age 2-1/2 until they start kindergarten — on Tuesday, just prior to her government’s budget being tabled at Queen’s Park Wednesday.

“The job of a parent has become harder in the current economy,” Wynne told parents at Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Regent Park about the plan, which will begin in 2020. “So families need this kind of support and insurance more than ever and we need to deliver it.”

Hailed as a national first and a game-changer by advocates, the move could be short-lived as Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford indicated he would scrap it if elected June 7.

Have your say

“We aren’t going to go out and do what Kathleen Wynne is doing right now and promise billions of dollars with other people’s money,” said Ford, who leads in all polls.

“She’s criss-crossing the province, spending billions of dollars that she doesn’t have. She’s spending billions of dollars with other people’s money. I’ve never seen anything like it — she’s out there buying votes.”

Under the Liberal plan, the average Ontario family with one preschooler would save about $17,000, while families in Toronto — where child-care fees are among the highest in the country — would save even more, the premier said.

“Frankly, it means we might have a third kid, because we can afford to,” said Rebecca Woods, a Toronto mom to 14-month-old twin boys William and Rainer.

“It will just make it so much easier for people to have a family and to work. The reality is, most parents can’t afford not to work, and many parents want to work,” said Woods, a professor at the University of Toronto.

Read more:

Kathleen Wynne announces $2.4B for Sick Kids’ patient care centre

Ontario government to boost hospital funding by $822M to ease overcrowding, wait times

Kathleen Wynne announces $2.1 billion in new mental health funding over four years

Wynne made the announcement to a cheering crowd — comprising mostly women — and received a standing ovation amid loud applause.

“This is a big change,” she said, adding it will help families and particularly women who want to re-enter the workforce after having children.

The lack of affordable child care is one of the biggest reasons for the “stark and stubborn wage gap between the genders,” Wynne said.

“If we don’t do something to give more women the choice to return to work after having kids and do it on their own terms then we will never achieve gender equality.”

The government will also introduce a provincial wage grid for chronically low-paid child-care workers by 2020 to bring early childhood educator wages up to the level of those in the school system.

Ontario’s former early learning adviser Charles Pascal, whose report on full-day kindergarten was adopted by the previous McGuinty government in 2009, said “this repositions Ontario as unique in North America and a global leader when it comes investing in our social and economic development.”

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath warned the plan is “going to keep a heck of a lot of families out,” including moms returning to work after maternity leave, whose children are infants — where child-care spots are more expensive and harder to find. She said the NDP will release a child-care platform plank soon.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“There’s a lot of gaps in this plan,” she said. “This is a little bit of help for folks, but it leaves a lot of families left out ... It’s unfortunate that the premier’s finally woken up to the fact that there’s a problem with the affordability of child care. This is something they could have addressed in the last 15 years but they haven’t.”

Child-care advocates, however, were pleased. Laurel Rothman of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care called it a “game changer,” and expert Martha Friendly said the initiative is “way beyond what we were expecting.”

“This is a first, not only in Canada, but in North America. But it’s not revolutionary around the world and that’s why we’re so far behind internationally,” Friendly said. “I like the whole package. Increasing public funding through funding the workforce is the way it has to be done to ensure quality.”

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says the delivery of a throne speech nine days before the Liberals’ pre-election budget was to give context to her government’s priorities. Opposition parties have criticized the timing of the speech. (The Canadian Speech)

The new money includes $162.5 million in operating funding over the next three years to support home child care and fee subsidies for children of other ages.

Just 20 per cent of families with one child can afford licensed care in Ontario and only very wealthy parents with two or more children can afford it, according to an analysis by University of Toronto economist Gord Cleveland, who devised the plan for the government.

About 106,000 Ontario preschoolers are currently enrolled in licensed care across the province at an annual cost to parents of between $9,900 and $13,500, Cleveland’s report shows.

“Focusing on child care for preschool children is the right place to start,” he said. “Many Ontario children already use child care at that age so we reach more families by focusing on affordability at this age. And because Ontario already has substantial numbers of spaces for preschool children, the gap in supply and demand will be quicker and easier to fill.”

However, east-end Toronto Councillor Janet Davis said she worries municipalities — responsible for implementing the plan — won’t be able to keep up with demand.

“There are many parents across Ontario who will sigh with relief and get themselves on a waiting list tomorrow,” Davis said. “But for most parents who are trying to get back to work with a young child, this is just a hope two-and-a-half years down the road.

The proposal is part of the government’s 2016 plan to add 100,000 licensed child care spots for children under age 4 within five years.

Last year’s budget included $200 million for fee subsidies and other affordability measures to help an estimated 28,000 parents, and $1.6 billion to build 45,000 new spaces, mostly in schools. Wednesday’s budget is expected to include more capital funding to ensure enough preschool spaces are available to meet demand.

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod — whose party has not yet announced any child care promises — slammed the Wynne plan as unaffordable, coming with borrowed money and taking customers away from independent child-care centres.

“Kathleen Wynne makes all kinds of great promises. She thinks she’s Oprah but she’s not got the money Oprah has,” MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) told reporters, referring to the TV star’s legendary giveaways of cars and other products to audience members.

With files from Rob Ferguson and Robert Benzie

Read more about: