Despite millions of dollars spent, spaces are down and operators are upset

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

15 July, 2025

The federal child care program is moving in the wrong direction in the Northwest Territories, according to Child Care Funding Update: Northwest Territories—Year Two (2022–23). The new Cardus report found that, despite spending almost $2.2 million to create and preserve child care spaces:

• The Northwest Territories had fewer child care spaces at the end of Year Two of its child care funding agreement with the federal government than when it signed on to it in 2021.
• The number of communities offering no-fee child care also declined from eighteen communities to fifteen over the first two years of the federal child care program.

The territory also used inconsistent methodologies to calculate average fees between the first and second years of the program. This prevents accurate year-to-year comparisons, making it difficult to verify the territory’s claims that it maintained fee reductions in the second year of the program.

“It’s troubling to observe just how poorly the federal child care program is serving families in the Northwest Territories,” says Peter Jon Mitchell, author of the report and family program director at Cardus. “The data from the first two years of the program show it took one step forward and two steps backward. The territory posted a net loss of child care spaces by the end of the second year.”

The previous Cardus report on the first year of the federal child are program’s implementation in the territory noted friction between the territorial government and operators. There is little evidence of improvement in year two. Submissions made to the Standing Committee on Social Development during the second year of the implementation of the program reveal the frustration many operators experienced under the cost control measures.  The committee report summarized the relationship between operators and the territory as a “crisis of trust.”

At Cardus, we recognize that families use diverse forms of child care to meet their needs and desires. Care is often costly, whether provided in a licensed facility, by a provider in the child’s home, or by a parent who forfeits earned income to care for their child. We propose policies that support parental preference across a diverse spectrum of care options.

Child Care Funding Update: Northwest Territories—Year Two (2022–23) is freely available online.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Media & Public Relations
media@cardus.ca
613-241-4500 x508

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