Families Minister Jenna Sudds says provinces and territories signed $10-a-day child care agreements with the federal government with their ‘eyes wide open,’ and Ottawa now expects them to make the program work.

  • healthetank
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    11 months ago

    Interesting article. We have a daughter in central Ontario, and have been signing her up for daycare. The article is focused mostly on Alberta complaints, but here prices are still ~20-40$/day, which is allegedly half from their original costs (which terrifies me).

    Another way to look at it - $5k to $10k per year.

    I can’t speak to the daycare side of things, but from our side, my spouse and I each make good money, and can make it work relatively easily. Anyone making less than us would likely not have a partner return to the workforce, especially if you have multiple children. At the old prices, even just back 5 years ago, a family of two or three would be looking at 40-50k a year in daycare costs, which very easily justifies a partner not working, especially if you can fold into that reduced car wear and tear, not rushing back to pick them up/drop them off, etc.

    • DerisionConsulting
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      11 months ago

      When I worked in retail, there was a woman who would lose, at minimum, 24 hours of work each week to childcare.
      Because this was retail they had basically all of us on part-time hours, because it’s what’s best for the employer.

    • Showroom7561
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      11 months ago

      See if your region or municipality offers subsidies. In Durham Region, there’s no waiting list, and I believe they’ll cover up to half the cost of daycare as a subsidy.

      Also, look at local YMCAs, which seem to have low(ish) rates already.

    • Szymon
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      11 months ago

      My wife turned into a stay at home mom when we started having kids. Her salary wouldnt cover the costs of both childcare necessary for her to return to work.

      Tell me again how I’m supposed to be making my country and society better? How about acknowledging that all levels of government are letting the critical care of the next generation flounder and fail.

      I worry about what kind of society will be there to support me when I can’t work anymore. I worry about the world my children seem to be inheriting.

      • healthetank
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        11 months ago

        Its a mess, for sure. This is a good first step, but in general children are wildly expensive, and the current model of raising children has increased the expectations for what is required of parents, while not actually changing (and in many cases reducing or removing) the resources they have at their disposal to do that.

        The only thing you can really do is wait out the first few years until the kids are in school, and hope one or both of you haven’t fallen too far behind in experience to make up for it. It’s one of the reasons multi-generational houses have, historically, been a thing. In the last 50-100 years we’ve entered an age where it’s become normalized to live alone, but I think as pressures increase and little is done to improve them, these kinds of concessions will be ones people will have to be making more often. I’m not suggesting you do that - I know nothing about your situation. I’m agreeing that the life that many people had when they were children is not likely to be the life that many of their children will get to experience.