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Ford said Wednesday that he isn’t guaranteeing that full-day kindergarten will continue beyond the next school year.

The program was introduced by former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty and was fully rolled out in 2014. It saves families thousands of dollars a year in child-care costs, but it costs the province $1.5-billion a year, at a time when the government is grappling with what it says is a $14.5 billion deficit.

Ford’s government is conducting education consultations, including about the possibility of removing class size caps for kindergarten and primary grades.

Trudeau urged people to send a message to the Ford government.

“I’m hoping that Ontarians … will make very, very clear that it would be a very bad political choice to cut opportunities for students and to cut education budgets,” he said.

Trudeau took questions from a crowd in the high school’s gymnasium while others watched from an overflow room nearby. Trudeau’s office said approximately 1,300 people attended the 90-minute event, which was the latest in a series of question-and-answer sessions held across the country.

The prime minister faced queries on a variety of subjects, including his environmental policy, immigration and political unrest in Venezuela.

Trudeau was asked twice what the federal government is doing to protect the jobs of autoworkers in Oshawa after General Motors announced it was closing its assembly plant there at the end of the year.