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Ottawa — Newly released research on Quebec’s low-cost child-care system suggests children who go through it may do well academically, but have worse outcomes when it comes to health, life satisfaction and crime rates.

In a paper released Monday, a group of university researchers say that children exposed to the province’s child-care system were more likely to have higher crime rates, worse health and lower levels of life satisfaction as they have aged than their counterparts in other provinces who didn’t have access to the same type of system.

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The research is likely to throw a political wrench into the federal election, where the New Democrats have made bringing Quebec-style child care to the rest of the country a key plank in their platform.

The party’s plan is to spend $5 billion a year after an eight-year phase-in to pay for a million existing and new child-care spaces that cost parents no more than $15 a day. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has repeatedly said his party’s plan would create quality, affordable child-care spaces in each province.