Winnipeg – Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, recently spoke about building more $10-a-day child care spaces. She said:
I do want to start by acknowledging that we are located on Treaty One territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibway, OjiCree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Red River Métis. I am so glad to be here at Red River College. I am glad to be here with the amazing students, with the amazing, dedicated teachers and with all the business partners of this fantastic school. Truly, this is a very, very special place and I’m always so happy to be able to come here and learn more and more of what you are doing.
When I was here last June, I had the chance to tour the College and meet the amazing women of the Women of Steel Program. They are learning how to weld in a specialized, accelerated program here at the College, and they really inspired me. I am actually glad I that none of them are here today—because that means they have graduated and they are out in the world doing important work and starting great careers.
Before I start on today’s announcement, I do want to make a note of some really good economic news we had for Canada this morning: We got some GDP numbers, numbers about the economic growth of our country, and we are off to a really strong start in 2024. Real GDP grew 0.6 per cent in January. That blew past market forecasts which were forecasting a strong number but it’s even stronger. And the early estimates for the first quarter of this year are that our economy will grow at an annualized rate of 3.5%. That’s a big deal in the first quarter.
This comes following encouraging news we’ve had about inflation. Inflation was 2.9% in January; it was 2.8% in February. That’s two months in a row that inflation has been within the Bank of Canada’s target range. I know that things have been really, really challenging for every single person in this room, for every single person in our country. This is some good news. It is better than people were expecting, and signs are pointing to a soft landing for Canada.
A fair chance to build a good middle-class life – to do as well as your parents, or better – has always been the promise of Canada.
But today, for too many younger Canadians, that promise is not being fulfilled. The hurdles are too high. They’re not getting their fair chance. Millennials and Gen Z have strived to pursue careers and start families in a time of high inflation, high interest rates, and high housing costs.
People in that generation look at their parents and they wonder: How will I ever be able to afford that? What many parents have achieved for themselves – a degree of comfort, and security – that’s what we want for our children, for all of our country’s children. We want their hard work to be rewarded, as it was for us. We want them to face the future with a feeling of anticipation, not angst.
We have arrived at a pivotal moment for Millennials and Gen Z. These young Canadians have so much talent and so much potential. It is so important for them to see and feel that our wonderful country can and will work for them – that the promise of Canada is within reach, that they can reach it.. What unites all of us in this moment is a desire—and a plan—to help everyone realize the promise of Canada and to help everyone in our country have that fair chance at a middle-class life.
Here’s how we’re going to do it. First, we’ll turbocharge the construction of new homes across Canada. And that is because the best way to bring down home prices is to increase supply – and quickly. Second, we’ll help make life cost less by enhancing Canada’s social safety net for every generation.
Third, we’ll grow the economy in a way that’s shared by everyone. To drive the kind of growth that will move the needle for all Canadians, we’re going to use the upcoming budget to build on our efforts to increase investment, enhance productivity, and encourage the kind of game-changing innovation that will create good-paying and meaningful jobs and keep Canada at the economic forefront. We need to harmonize regulations between our provinces because free trade within our own country will increase everyone’s prosperity, from coast to coast to coast.
Today, as a next step in our plan, I am here to announce what we are doing to help young parents across Canada by improving access to affordable early learning and child care. Child care is expensive. Without support from the government, the monthly costs of child care can easily add up to the equivalent of a second mortgage or second rent payment. Young people— and let’s be candid, young women—often have to choose between having a family and having a career. That is not right.
Our government want to change that, and we will change that. That is why, three years ago, we launched our Canada-wide system of affordable learning and child care. And we have delivered. Today, child care fees are down by at least 50 per cent across Canada. In seven provinces and territories, including here in the great province of Manitoba —and soon it’s going to be eight provinces and territories—child care costs just $10-a-day. What an accomplishment. Well done Manitoba. What a relief for Manitoba families, what support that has given them with affordability and the cost of living. This year, Manitoba families are saving up to $2,600—per child.
There are nearly 250,000 new child care spaces on track to be created across Canada. And our affordable system of early learning and child care has already enabled a record-high labour force participation of 85.7 per cent for Canadian women.
This is incredible progress. But we need to do more. If you talk to young parents, they will tell you how hard it is to find a space in child care. We need to create more child care spaces and we need more early childhood educators.
So, in the upcoming federal budget, we will be launching a new Child Care Expansion Loan Program. That’s going to deliver $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants to not-for-profit and public child care providers. This will make it possible to build new child care centres and renovate existing early learning and child care centres. This is an investment that is going to help provide what we urgently need as a country: more places in great daycare centres like the one here at Red River College.
We know it’s what Canadians want and need. I had such a fun time at your early learning and child care centre earlier today, and one of the things the great educators who run it told me is there’s more demand than they can accommodate. It’s a wonderful place for a child to grow up in and people here in Winnipeg know it. We need to have more places for our kids. This money is going to help build them.
We also know early learning and child care depends on our fabulous educators.
So we are expanding the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to include early learning and child care educators who choose to work in rural and remote communities. We’re going to invest $48 million in the program and that will mean that student loan forgiveness will increase the longer an early learning and child care educator works in a remote or rural area.
Now, I want to emphasize something really important about what we’re doing. This program is in place now for family physicians and nurse practitioners because I think we all know how urgently we need doctors and nurse practitioners in our rural and remote communities. In extending this program to early learning and child care educators, what we’re saying is: your work is every bit as essential.
Because child care truly is essential.
Loan forgiveness for health professionals helps Canadians get the health care they need, and loan forgiveness for educators will help families get the child care they need. It will help our children learn and grow in the best possible environment.
And to support our growing affordable child care system, we are investing $10 million over two years to train new early childhood educators.
And let me just say – Red River College is the perfect place to make today’s announcement. You have a fantastic child care centre here for students and employees of the college. You have a wonderful program to train early child care educators; and it is very likely that your own students and graduates—like the Women of Steel—will be physically building the new child care spaces we need. Basically, Red River College is doing it all. Thank you!
You have a whole ecosystem here that perfectly encompasses what we are trying to achieve and what we need to achieve as a country: making child care more affordable and accessible so young parents, especially young mothers, can have great careers and raise their families at the same time.
And parents want to know, mothers want to know, when they’re out working that their children are in a great place that is great for them. We need to ensure that early learning and child care is of the best possible quality. Teaching and respecting and paying early learning and child care educators, the people who teach and raise our children in their formative years, is so important for us all.
Our government first came to office with a vow to strengthen and expand the middle class. We delivered on that pledge by reducing poverty, especially for children and seniors, and creating millions of good jobs across Canada. Our work isn’t over.
In all we do, we dedicate ourselves to keeping the promise of Canada within reach for our younger generations. Because that is what you have earned, that is what you deserve, and that is what we’re going to make sure you have. And it is what your parents and grandparents want for you, too.
Thank you very much.