New Brunswick parents won’t be able to plan ahead for child care fee relief for at least another couple of months, despite deals now struck between the federal government and all three other Atlantic provinces.
When he was in Cap-Pelé on Wednesday, Beausejour MP and federal minister of intergovernmental affairs Dominic LeBlanc noted the size of the crowd gathered to hear the announcement of tri-level funding for a new $13.5 million community centre.
“You thought all these people came here to see you, Gary,” LeBlanc joked with New Brunswick Minister Responsible for Regional Development, Gary Crossman. “I thought they all came here to see me. [Former premier] Frank [McKenna] thought they all came here to see him.” Leblanc instead attributed the crowd to rumours that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might make an appearance. Alas, he did not. “There would be a lot more RCMP and big black Suburbans if he was here,” said LeBlanc.
Trudeau was instead in Newfoundland where he announced a $5.2 billion deal to cover costs of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, as well as a deal on subsidized daycare for the province. That trip was part of a two-day Maritime tour that also saw him visit PEI, to announce a daycare deal for that province. Trudeau did visit New Brunswick, stopping for dinner with Leblanc, and dropping in on a Moncton vaccination clinic. But no announcements of a daycare deal for New Brunswick were forthcoming, and may not be until the fall.
“We had hoped that the government of New Brunswick would have already signed an agreement,” said LeBlanc on Wednesday. “I’m hoping that the parents and the grandparents of New Brunswick and the thoughtful people who understand that an early learning and childcare program is one of the best economic and social programs that a country can have, will convince the New Brunswick government to quickly sit down and finalize an agreement. There’s over half a billion dollars for the province of New Brunswick waiting for them to sit down with us.”
According to LeBlanc, New Brunswick has been in negotiation with the federal government on the issue.
“There is an ongoing active discussion. I know that my colleague, [minister of Families, Children and Social Development] Ahmed Hussen, has spoken a number of times with the provincial minister Dominic Cardy. I have spoken about this with the premier,” LeBlanc said Wednesday.
Flavio Nienow, spokesperson for New Brunswick’s department of Education and Early Childhood Development, said in an emailed statement that the province continues to negotiate.
“While we’re aware that several other provinces have signed agreements with the federal government, we continue to carefully negotiate a deal that would maximize benefits to New Brunswick families,” writes Nienow. He says the goal is to reach an agreement “as soon as possible.” However, other statements have indicated the New Brunswick is not planning to come to an agreement for months yet.
Spokesperson Danielle Elliot told the Telegraph Journal’s Adam Huras earlier in July that the province would, “have more to share in the fall.”
Nienow says the province wants to ensure an agreement “addresses the unique realities of the province’s early learning and child care sector.” Nienow did not elaborate on what those unique realities are.
LeBlanc says the child care agreements with the provinces are, “designed to be flexible, because no province starts from the same starting point. Every province has sort of a different system that has evolved over time.”
But there are basic principles that the federal government is insisting on. So far, all agreements including a dramatic reduction of fees (by 40-50%) and the goal of reaching $10 a day fees by 2026. “Some provinces are going faster than that,” says LeBlanc, including PEI and Newfoundland, who have both promised dramatic fees reductions next year.
The agreements also include increased wages for early learning educators, “to make it really the profession that it is and should be,” says LeBlanc.
“So all of these are just basic principles, that if other governments from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador have been able to find valuable, I hope that the New Brunswick government will too.”
“If it’s possible with the Conservative government of Prince Edward Island [to reach an agreement with the federal Liberal government], I would hope it’s possible with the Higgs government as well,” says LeBlanc.
Quick facts on child care funding agreements announced for the Atlantic Provinces:
Newfoundland and Labrador
- average $10/day fees in 2023
- fees down 40% in 2022, from current average of $25/day to $15/day
- 5,895 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within five years
- $347 million over the next five years in federal funding (including a one time investment of nearly $6.5 million in 2021‑22 to support the early childhood workforce, and $34 million in previously announced funding)
Prince Edward Island
- average $10/day fees by end of 2024
- fees cut by half by end of 2022
- 452 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within two years
- $121.3 million over five years (including a one time investment of about $3.6 million in 2021-2022 to support the early childhood workforce)
Nova Scotia
- average $10/day fees by 2026
- fees cut in half by end of 2022
- 4,000 new regulated early learning and child care spaces within two years, plus another 5,500 spaces by March 31, 2025
- $605 million over five years in federal funding
- $40 million in additional provincial funding, over five years
