from a market
to a system
From a patchwork market to a publicly funded system: how fifty years of advocacy, the $10 a day plan, and Canada’s first federal child care legislation laid the foundations, and what comes next in Phase 2. As the system builds, ideas such as system “coherence” and community roadmaps will remain important for tracking progress and pointing the way.
The story so far
- Before2017A market, not a system
Decades of patchwork services, unaffordable fees, and low international ratings — while fifty years of advocacy built the policy groundwork for change.
- 2017Multilateral ELCC Framework
Federal, provincial, and territorial governments set out the principles: affordability, accessibility, quality, and inclusivity.
- 2018Indigenous ELCC frameworks
The Indigenous ELCC Framework, which includes distinct First Nations, Métis, and Inuit frameworks.
- 2021The federal budget commits
Budget 2021 funds a Canada-wide system; all provinces and territories sign agreements and develop action plans.
- 2021–26Phase 1Foundations laid
Fees fall toward $10 a day, spaces expand, and supply-side public funding replaces the market approach.
- March2024Bill C-35 becomes law
Canada’s first federal child care legislation entrenches long-term commitment to the system.
- April2026Phase 2 begins
Agreements extended to 2031 in most of Canada’s thirteen provinces/territories, marking the beginning of the next stage of system building. These were followed by agreements with the remaining three provinces.
A market, not a system
Canadian child care has always been a market, not a system. It has been a patchwork of insufficient services, unaffordable parent fees, inequity, quality challenges, a poorly compensated workforce, and weak and intermittent government support. Before the $10 a day plan, Canadian child care received low ratings in international analyses.
Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework
Developments leading to Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) first phase included the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework (2017), the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework (2018), and the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit frameworks. Then came the 2021 federal budget, and the first Canada-wide provincial/territorial agreements and action plans.
The 2017 Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework laid out the principles for CWELCC: Affordability, Accessibility, Quality, and Inclusivity.
Fifty years of child care advocacy
Child care advocacy laid the policy groundwork for the government vision and policy set out in government commitments to transform the child care market into an equitable, coherent system for all.
Phase 1 (2021–2026): laying the foundations
The policy blueprint
System-building’s first phase (2021–2026) laid the foundations for the envisioned child care system. Provincial/territorial implementation was to be shaped by common high-level policy elements. These include a universal approach, supply-side funding, expansion primarily through public and non-profit provision, inclusivity, and recognition of the child care workforce’s key role.
Bill C-35: the system becomes law
Bill C-35, An Act Respecting Early Learning and Child Care, Canada’s first federal child care legislation, became law March 19, 2024. Including a rights-based approach, it reaffirms federal government commitment to establishing and maintaining a system in which “all children in Canada” have access to high-quality, affordable, inclusive child care programs, “in particular those provided by public and not-for-profit child care providers”.
What Phase 1 accomplished — and what it didn’t
CWELCC’s most noteworthy first-phase development was that licensed child care (outside Quebec) became primarily publicly funded for the first time. Its main accomplishments and challenges were:
Accomplished
- Reducing parent fees to $10 a day was the first priority. In 2025, six provinces and territories set fees at $10 a day; others made substantial reductions.
- A majority of jurisdictions used government-set fees, with some higher than $10 a day.
- There was substantial expansion of spaces in most jurisdictions.
- Many initiatives addressed workforce issues Canada-wide.
Still to address
- Expansion did not meet the targets, and parent demand soared as fees dropped.
- Child care remained unevenly distributed geographically and by age group, as public planning for expansion remained limited.
- Affordability for all was not accomplished.
- Despite the “primarily not-for-profit” commitment, for-profit expansion accounted for much of the growth — more than 40% of the growth of full-day spaces in seven jurisdictions was for-profit.
- Workforce issues were not addressed comprehensively; qualified staff shortages remained widespread.
- Quality and data issues remained outstanding.
Phase 2 (2026–2031):
what comes next
The first five-year agreements ended March 31, 2026. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered provinces/territories the chance to extend their existing agreements through 2031. Ten jurisdictions immediately accepted, with three — Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan — coming to agreements later.
PM Justin Trudeau was replaced in 2025 by Mark Carney as Liberal leader and Prime Minister. In the subsequent election, Mr. Carney’s Liberals again formed government, committing in the election platform to “protect and strengthen” the CWELCC plan.
Phase 2 officially began April 1, 2026. With agreements now extended to March 2031 in all thirteen jurisdictions, the work ahead is to keep building: continuing fee reductions, expanding equitably distributed public and non-profit child care, strengthening the workforce, and ensuring that Canada’s child care is high quality.
The second phase agreements retained the federal funding in place at the end of the 2021 – 2026 agreements plus a 3% “escalator”. Although additional funding to continue building early learning and child care was not included either in Prime Minister Carney’s first budget or the 2026 Spring Economic Update, in June 2026, an additional $5.4 billion was announced for 2026–27 and 2027–28 “to sustain and stabilize the national $10 a day early learning and child care program”.
resources
Phase 1
Measuring matters: Assessing Canada’s progress toward $10 a day child care for all
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), report, Oct 2023. Canada
ECEC in Canada 2023: The state of Canadian early childhood education and care in 2024
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Aug 2024. Canada
ECEC in Canada 2021: The state of Canadian early childhood education and care in 2022
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Apr 2023. Canada
Federal budget 2021: The child care budget
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, ISSUE file, Apr 2021. Canada
Early learning and child care agreements
Government of Canada, government document, Jul 2020. Canada
Summary of the early learning and child care agreements and first action plans
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Apr 2023. Canada
Is $10 daycare in trouble?
CBC Front Burner, podcast, Feb 2024. Canada
Before the plan
An analysis of the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework and the Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreements
Child Care Now, report, Feb 2019. Canada
Innocenti report card 8: The child care transition
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, report, Dec 2008. International
OECD thematic review of Canadian early childhood education and care: Highlights from the recommendations
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, BRIEFing notes, Sep 2004. International
Harper and child care
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), book chapter, Sep 2008. Canada
Universal child care: Is it for real this time?
CBC Front Burner, podcast, Apr 2021. Canada
“This half century of struggle”: A look back at child care advocacy
Active History, article, May 2021. Canada
Rock-a-bye, Brian: The national strategy on child care
McGill-Queen’s University Press, book chapter, Jan 1989. Canada