Families from Ola Daycare in my riding are in the House today. They are facing a $800-to-$900-per-child increase in the cost of their child care, because the operator had to withdraw from the $10-a-day child care program due to this Conservative government’s poor implementation. It has been two years since the agreement was signed with the federal government, and Ontario still does not have a funding formula in place. Child care centres simply cannot operate with this kind of unpredictability.

Where is the funding formula you promised?

The general operating funding to child care programs, which is a provincial responsibility, is lower this year than it was in 2018, even before adjusting for record-high inflation.

Without dependable operating funding that increases with the cost of living, and without immediate action, more families like the ones with us today will be without affordable child care.

Families from Ola Daycare have been left scrambling. Their choice is to pay hundreds of dollars more each month or lose their child care spots.

Will the minister commit to, at the very least, increased funding to keep pace with inflation so operators don’t leave the program?

First of all, this is the government that cut child care fees for those families by 50%, saving them $8,000 to $10,000 a year—for context, under the former Liberals, child care increased by 400%, and under Liberal leadership, the city of Toronto was a child care desert.

We have a commitment to build 19,000 net new spaces between now and the year 2026, and we are on track to do it.

You raised a serious concern about the federal program—a concern we share. The difference is, when it came to voting in this House to stand up for for-profit operators like those in your riding, you opted to side with the federal Liberal government to preclude a third of our parents, who are here today, who want government on their side and off their back.

Instead of trying to speak from both sides of your mouth, vote for choice. Respect—

We are the only political party in this House that did what the Liberals could never have done, which is to cut fees, increase spaces and stand up for the choices of all families in this province. Those are the facts.

While we increase wages for workers, we’re going to continue cutting fees for working families.

What we’re not going to do is to allow ideology to triumph over the right of all families to have choice and affordable child care—because the Liberals and New Democrats would have precluded them all.

Mr. Speaker, we are going to remain focused on affordability during this national crisis by cutting fees, creating more spaces and supporting all families in all regions of this province.