Ontario is looking at ways to make child care more affordable for families in the province.
The education minister and the early years and child care minister are unveiling the child care framework today as they announce $1.6 billion in funding to build 45,000 new licensed spaces.
Those new child care spaces are part of a pledge of giving 100,000 more children aged four and under access to licensed child care over five years.
The new framework aims to increase access to high-quality child-care by funding those new spaces, providing more funding for licensed home child care and offering more fee subsidies for families who need them.
As part of the overall plan, Ontario will appoint experts to lead an affordability strategy and the province will study how it can better support early childhood educators and child care staff with compensation, hiring, retention and training.
According to research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, several Greater Toronto Area cities have the highest child-care fees in the country, with Toronto topping the list with a median fee of $1,649 a month for infants.