The Disastrous Rollout of the Feds’ $10-a-Day Child-Care Program

Commentary In 2021 Ottawa announced plans for nationwide $10-a-day child care at a cost of $30 billion over five years. Three years in, how is it going? Not well. From the outset, skeptics predicted shortages, reduced parental choice, the destruction of private-sector operations, and a significant discrepancy between projected spending and the actual cost of providing child care at a fraction of its true value. The evidence from coast to coast shows all this now coming to pass. Let’s begin in British Columbia. Vancouver estimates it is short 15,000 daycare spaces. A senior planner told city council last November that “it’s a desert everywhere” when it comes to child care. Elsewhere in B.C., local media in Langley Township, one of the province’s fastest-growing suburban communities, report there is a “desperate childcare shortage.” In Okanagan Valley, the state of child care has reportedly “reached a crisis point.”...