Education Minister Stephen Lecce says that the Trudeau government’s national child-care plan could set up Ontario for “short-term success” but “long-term failure,” despite the promise of fees being cut in half for many parents as soon as next year.

The federal Liberal government has now reached deals with every province outside of Ontario and New Brunswick as it works to deliver on a $30 billion national child-care program that it included in April’s federal budget and campaigned heavily on this past fall.

As part of the agreements, the provinces have committed to cutting the average child-care fees at non-profit centres in half by the end of 2022 on the way to eventually reducing all child-care costs to an average of $10 per day within five years.

The program could mean big savings for Toronto parents who face the highest median daycare fee in the country at $22,394 a year.

But while speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday, Lecce said that he is unwilling to sign on to a deal that won’t keep child-care costs low indefinitely.

 “We have made the case to the feds and we're going to do so with great emphasis over the coming days that the program they've offered us unfortunately does not provide a fair deal for Ontario families and for people who want child care to yes be affordable but more importantly to be accessible for the next decade to come,” he said. “What we seek to avoid is a program that for five years reduces product costs year one to year five successively and then has a massive spike in year six where literally fees will catastrophically rise to where they are today or worse.”

The federal government has said that it will provide Ontario with around $10 billion over the next five years to reduce the cost of child care. It was has also pledged to providing approximately $8.3 billion in annual funding to the provinces after 2026 to keep costs affordable.

Lecce, however, said that the federal government has so far not accounted for the $3.6 billion that Ontario already spends on full-day kindergarten for four and five-year-olds, something that most other provinces don’t offer.

Nova Scotia, which reached an agreement with the federal government months ago, is the only other province to provide full-day kindergarten for four year olds.

“That just seems unfair. To any objective observer that isn’t a fair agreement, if other provinces got those subsidies and offsets for those four and five year olds but not this province,” Lecce said. “So we are making that case to the feds and we think there is still a pathway forward. We're standing up for Ontario families who want those investments recognized.”

Opposition slams government over delays

The Ford government is facing escalating pressure to reach a deal with the feds in the wake of an agreement between Ottawa and the Alberta provincial government that was announced on Monday.

During his availability Lecce questioned whether the federal program will actually reduce the average cost of child-care to $10 a day by 2026 and promised to provide federal officials with updated modelling which will make it “abundantly clear that the program they put on the table will shortchange Ontario families.”

But Karina Gould, who is the federal minister of families, children and social development, told CTV News Toronto that he government sent a term paper to provinces and territories seven months ago asking for a strategy to reduce fees and create spaces but hasn't heard back from Ontario. 

“The fact that this deal has not been struck, the fact that the government hasn't even provided the documentation necessary to begin the natural process of negotiations is stunning,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said at Queen's Park. “I mean, people are paying exorbitant amounts of money for child care, families are paying as much as a mortgage payment to send their kids to child care.”

Lecce suggested on Monday that September’s federal election had the effect of slowing down negotiations with the federal government.

He said that his government does remain committed to reaching an agreement but wants “a fair deal” that recognizes the billions that Ontario spends on full-day kindergarten and includes a “mechanism” to extend the terms past 2026.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also expressed confidence that a deal will eventually get done while speaking with reporters in Alberta, noting that his government is “there with the money and the framework to do it.”

“We’re very hopeful that Ontario will do it,” he said.