Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Clarenville this morning to announce $10 dollar a day childcare in the province.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement this morning at Discovery Day Care.
The announcement comes nearly two years after the provincial government reached a deal with Ottawa to support $10-a-day regulated child care in Newfoundland and Labrador.
But what good is affordability if you can’t get access is what Opposition Leader David Brazil asked in the House of Assembly this morning.
He says he used to sell hockey sticks and had people coming in to tell him that a competitor was selling hockey sticks for cheaper, but they didn’t have any. It “means nothing” says Brazil if it’s cheaper, but you don’t have access to it.
(Photo via CPAC.)
Premier Andrew Furey acknowledged there is a gap and the province is now fully focused on filling staffing shortages and creating more child care spaces. He says they tackled affordability first and now they’re focused on access to child care.
He says that will take time, but they’ve already started the process by introducing Pre-Kindergarten, and training some 700 Early Childhood Educators—a 5-fold increase over the last five years according to the premier—and incentivizing child care operators to become regulated.
