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The mental image conjured up by the government’s deal with the provinces and territories on day-care was of a friend’s jet-ski that somehow managed to burst into flames and sink at the same time.

In this case, the odd juxtaposition is of a government that is, at the same time, spending too little and too much on child care.

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Photo by Todd Korol/The Canadian Press / The Canadian Press, nat_staging

To explain – Jean-Yves Duclos, the whip-smart Social Development Minister, has forged a deal with most of the provinces on a framework to create new child-care spaces across the country, coming close to fulfilling a dream of most prime ministers since Brian Mulroney first committed to the idea in 1984.

The feds have agreed to spend $7.5 billion over 11 years in a deal that hopes to create 40,000 new spaces. Details are scarce, since the bilateral agreements with the respective provinces and territories will follow later. Ministers from B.C. and Quebec were not present – the former because of the current political flux; the latter because…, well it’s Quebec.