Achi news desk-
The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will extend student loan forgiveness and further training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
The prime minister unveiled a trio of childcare-centric commitments that will be included in the upcoming federal budget, aimed at opening more $10-a-day childcare spaces across the country, as the Liberals continue to work towards that. create 250,000 new places by March 2026.
Specifically, the Liberals promise to offer $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants to public and nonprofit child care providers, so they can build or renovate their care centers.
This funding will be administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMCH), which Trudeau called “a common sense approach that will help child care be developed alongside housing.”
An additional $48 million is earmarked over the next four years to extend student loan forgiveness — similar to the program offered to rural doctors and nurses — to early childhood educators, in an effort to encourage more teachers to work in communities less.
The federal government is also pledging $10 million over the next two years to train more early childhood educators.
The prime minister, speaking in Surrey, BC, alongside the minister who currently leads the file, Jenna Sudds, touched on the bilateral child care agreements that are in force across the country to see thousands of children are placed in affordable places.
However, in recent months Canadian parents and care providers have sounded the alarm about increasingly long daycare waiting lists. And, operators in some states have threatened to withdraw from the lower cost program because they are struggling to make ends meet.
Trudeau said that although the government has funded 100,000 places so far and is aware of the challenges in introducing this new national program, not enough families have access and not all provinces are moving as quickly as they should.
“I want to take a moment to speak to young mothers, many of you millennials. You’ve grown up with so much pressure in this economy, the 2008 recession, COVID, climate change… and we want to make sure that everyone – especially mothers who are raising children – have the best chance to succeed and prosper,” Trudeau said.
“As Canada grows, as families grow, we want to ensure that more children can have access to high-quality child care… That’s what equity for all generations is all about.”
The prime minister also got political, accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of opposing the programme, despite the Official Opposition voting in favor of a recently passed piece of Liberal legislation meant to enshrine in law a commitment to learning early childhood and child care across Canada. system, and the long-term funding needed to sustain it.
Reacting to the news, NDP MP and critic for children, families, and social development Leah Gazan said the announcement was a “direct result of advocacy” by her party, care workers, unions, and women’s organizations.
She also pointed the finger at the Conservatives, accusing them of trying to delay the program and pushing for a “private for-profit system that parents can’t afford.”
Liberal pre-budget strategy
Similar to how Wednesday’s presentation of renter-focused pre-budget news went, cabinet ministers are making echo announcements of the new childcare affordability measures across the country on Thursday afternoon.
This is all part of a new communication strategy that the Liberals are using in the run up to the release of the federal budget on April 16.
Practically every day between now and when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland release the massive economic document, the Liberals are expected to tease bits and pieces of the budget.
In an effort to extend their ability to market the measures in it, Trudeau as well as members of his cabinet will unveil new initiatives over the next two weeks, to the point that the vast majority of the budget will be public before budget day. .
Traditionally, governments have held budget news — with the exception of some pre-submission leaks — for the day the document is presented in the House of Commons after locking up reporters and stakeholders for a day.
Kicking off this strategy on Wednesday, Trudeau published a video across social media platforms stating that the overarching theme of the 2024 budget will be “generational equity,” a message meant to speak to millennials and Generation Z.
“When I first decided to run for office, one of my biggest motivations was to work to create a Canada that young people saw themselves in… As prime minister, I’ve never lost sight of that,” Trudeau said in the clip.
“You as young Canadians are the heartbeat of our economy. You power our growth and you deserve an economy that gives you a fair shot at success. But, this moment we all live in throws big challenges your way… So we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work like hell. And we’re going to tell you what we’re doing to fix it, over the next two weeks.”
While Trudeau’s victory in the 2015 election was partly credited to a historic surge in youth turnout, Poilievre has been giving up on that Liberal voting bloc of those aged 43 and under, trying to appeal to their current struggles to move forward. his “powerful pay cheques” and housing affordability debates.
In November 2023, Trudeau tapped Max Valiquette, a marketing guru with a self-described expertise in understanding younger generations, as his new executive director of communications.
“We are witnessing a different communication strategy from the government. They are implementing something they have not tried before. We are not going to have a budget day on April 16. We are going to have budget days between now and April 16,” political commentator Scott Reid said in an interview on CTV News Channel.
“Frankly, this government knows it needs to break through, it knows it needs to connect with Canadians … Is it going to turn the polls around overnight? No. A they might get a bit more of a hearing than they would have otherwise. been? Probably.”
With files from CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos and Annie Bergeron-Oliver
