Horwath’s $12 per day child care plan is change for the better for families

SCARBOROUGH – Andrea Horwath’s plan will make child care easier to find and more affordable for every Ontario family.

As part of Horwath’s Change for the Better platform, the NDP will create 202,000 new licensed, not-for-profit child care spaces. For families making less than $40,000 per year, licensed, non-profit care will be free, and the average cost for all other families will be just $12 per day.

“Nothing is more important to moms and dads than knowing your kids have the best, safest care possible,” Horwath said. “And we know that means licensed, non-profit care – the kind of early childhood education we want every family to be able to choose for their little ones.

“But for too many Ontario parents, the cost of high quality child care is out of reach. We can do better. For working parents, we have to do better. Our plan gives hardworking families peace of mind when they drop their kids off in the morning, it gives parents some financial breathing room month-to-month, and it gives their kids the best possible start in life.”

Under Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals, too many parents have been forced to choose between going to work or taking care of their children. Ontarians now pay the highest child care fees in the nation. In Toronto, the median monthly cost of child care is $1,758 for infants, $1,354 for toddlers and $1,212 for pre-school aged kids. Families in Ontario also wait the longest for subsidized child care, and there are only enough licensed spaces for just one in five children.

And since Wynne has chosen to cover only children between 2.5 and four, too many moms are unable to go back to work when they’re ready.

“While Kathleen Wynne allowed child care to become the hardest to find and the most expensive in the country, Doug Ford thinks everyday families in Ontario should go it alone. Under both of their plans, life keeps getting harder,” Horwath said. “Our change really puts children and families at the heart of how we deliver child care and early childhood education.”

Additional highlights of the NDP’s $12-a-day child care plan include:

• Ensuring child care dollars go to not-for-profit and public providers so that public dollars don’t pad the profits of private corporations
• Addressing significant new demand by paying early childhood educators a fair wage that respects the vital work they do
• Working with school boards, community centres and public buildings to create new centres and spaces, with a priority on public schools

Horwath’s fully-costed Change for the Better plan can be found at ontariondp.ca/platform