Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chats with children at a child care at Don Christian Recreation Centre in Surrey, B.C on Thursday, March 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin

SURREY, B.C. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is aiming more of his upcoming budget at young voters with a series of announcements on child care Thursday just a day after he offered supports for renters.

Trudeau says his government plans to provide more than $1 billion in low-cost loans, grants and student loan forgiveness to expand child care across Canada.

The funding is part of the Liberal government's effort to win back support among younger voters and middle-class families.

"This is a brand new program that we are building because as a government we decided and we knew that access to affordable, high-quality child care was important right across the country, not just so kids can get the best start in life, not just because it contributes to our economic growth, but because families, particularly moms, shouldn't have to choose between a career and raising a family."

The prime minister said the money will be loaned directly to non-profit and public child-care providers through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. to expand their spaces or for projects such as new centres built alongside public housing.

An additional $60 million will be set aside for non-repayable grants for eligible child-care centres to build new spaces or renovate, he said.

The government will also offer student loan forgiveness to rural and remote early childhood educators and another $10 million over two years to bolster their ranks with extra training.

The funding for more affordable child-care spaces is an extension of the government's $10-a-day child-care program agreed to by all provinces and territories.

Rhea Hubbard, director of a Surrey-based organization called Alex House that oversees 18 child-care centres in B.C., attended Trudeau's event in Surrey, B.C.

She said she expects the announcement to bring relief for families and for workers.

Hubbard said they've become overwhelmed with demand for their services.

“For us as an operator, it stabilizes our enrolment. It stabilizes our operations, it stabilizes our staffing, which is critical,” Hubbard said of the new funding announcement.

She said she is excited by the prospect that more families will benefit from the $10-per-day program.

“There are tears that are shed, the relief that we see from families is huge,” she said.

Trudeau acknowledged during the announcement that not all provincial governments are moving "as fast or as responsibly as they should" on the $10-dollar-a-day program.

"We're going to continue to work constructively with all provinces but recognize that because the federal Conservatives are consistently standing against child care, conservative premiers are in some cases slow walking and in some cases not delivering to the right level, because they're listening to their federal brethren."

Daycare operators in some provinces have threatened to pull out of the national system, saying the federal-provincial agreements limit fees they can charge and don’t cover their costs.

Child care groups in Alberta and Ontario have said the burden of offering low-cost care is being shifted to the operators.

Trudeau said his government will be holding those provinces to account after they accepted the funding.

"But this billion dollars in investment in child care is going to make a huge difference in the number of spaces right across the country," he said.

At a secondary news conference about the announcement, Jenna Sudds, minister of families, children and social development, said provinces and territories are required to submit a yearly plan for the child-care funding, as well as an annual report.

"Alberta and Ontario have signed agreements and have made commitments not only to us as a federal government, but to the families within their provinces that they will work with us in good faith to achieve the objectives of this program, increasing access and making care more affordable," she said.

NDP critic for children, families, and social development, Leah Gazan, lauded the announcement.

She criticized the Conservative Opposition, saying its members have attempted to "stall the program at every step."

"They’ve pushed for a for-profit private system that parents can’t afford, which would leave child-care workers worse off," she said in the statement.

Sudds said the country is already seeing the benefits of the national system.

"We're seeing more women working than ever before and we are really just getting started," she told reporters.

She noted that high demand means more families are on wait-lists, which is why there is a need to add more child-care spaces.

On Wednesday, Trudeau kicked off the pre-budget tour by detailing a $15-million fund and a bill of rights to better protect tenants who rent their homes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024