OTTAWA - The federal government plans to spend $7 billion over the next decade to help ease the burden of child care costs, part of a slew of new long-term spending targeting Canadian families.
The details outlined in today's federal budget suggest that spending could create 40,000 new subsidized daycare spaces nationwide by 2019, the year the Trudeau Liberals face re-election.
The measure is one of several the Liberals are enacting as part of a push to get more women into the workforce and ease lingering financial concerns about how families can pay their bills.
The budget extends parental leave to 18 months by spreading 12 months worth of payments over that time, and letting expecting mothers claim maternity benefits up to 12 weeks before their due date, an increase from the current eight-week period.
Those measures, among others, will require an increase in employment insurance premiums that workers and employers pay starting next year.
The Liberals' second budget also expands eligibility for student loans so part-time students, adults returning to school and students who support families can access funding to help them more easily enter or re-enter the workforce.
