The Liberals will keep pushing for $10 a day child care across the country if re-elected.
Leader Justin Trudeau made the commitment during a campaign stop Tuesday in Markham, Ont.
“If all provinces sign on to our plan as we expect they will, we will create 250,000 new quality child-care spaces across the country,” Trudeau told reporters.
The Liberals said those agreements would see early learning and child care fees reduced by 50 per cent by the end of next year and to $10 a day on average by no later than 2025-26.
Ottawa has yet to sign deals with three provinces and two territories, including New Brunswick and Ontario.
The Liberal leader also took aim Tuesday at the Conservative Party’s child care plan.
In their platform released a day earlier, the Conservatives said they plan to replace Liberal child-care funding deals with a refundable tax credit if elected.
“They’re promising backward Stephen Harper-era policies that won’t create a single child-care spot in Ontario or in any other province or improve the quality of child-care anywhere across the country,” said Trudeau. “Parents can’t afford to move backward.”
Trudeau was joined for the announcement by Chrystia Freeland, who reiterated the importance of affordable early learning and child care.
“I am hearing over and over from our businesses, from our small businesses, that they need workers, and so many mothers across our amazing country want to work,” said Freeland, “but they also want to know that their children are getting outstanding care and learning while their parents are working.”
Afghanistan situation
Trudeau said he took part in a Tuesday morning briefing with officials to get an update on the situation in Afghanistan.
He said Canadian officials are working with their counterparts in the United States to help more people escape the Taliban government.
Trudeau said Canada had had a total of nine flights leave the country in recent weeks.
“In the coming days, a number of the Afghan families that arrived weeks ago will be ending their COVID-19 quarantine and able to start their new lives across the country,” he said.
Canada has said that it plans to resettle as many as 20,000 Afghan refugees.
Trudeau said they will not recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan
“They have taken over and replaced a duly-elected democratic government by force,” he said, adding that they are “a recognized terrorist organization under Canadian law.”
