“Federal child care funding acts as a straitjacket” on territories and provinces.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

25 March, 2025

Yukon outpaced national child care space-creation targets, opening 400 new spots in its first two years—eight times the goal of 50, according to Child Care Funding Update: Yukon—Years One and Two (2021–22 and 2022–23) published by Cardus, a non-partisan think tank. However, Yukon was only able to do so by working outside the federal system, using territorial dollars to fund spaces for a broad age range of children and to fund for-profit facilities that the federal government shunned.

“Federal child care funding acts as a straitjacket, placing severe limitations on the type of child care that a territory or province can subsidize,” says Peter Jon Mitchell, family program director at Cardus. “In 2022-23, Yukon budgeted $30 million of its own dollars for child care, in addition to the $7 million it received from the federal government. So, it was able to get around federal restrictions a lot more easily than other territories and provinces.”

The Cardus report also found that Yukon’s childcare fees averaged $4.45 a day in year one of its agreement with the federal government, but rose to an average of $7.19 a day by year two. It is not clear why the average fee increased. Despite the increase, the fee remained below the federal target.

Despite some progress, Yukon fell short on its inclusivity goals. It failed to complete an evaluation and plan for its Supported Child Care program by year two. Like every other territory or province Cardus has studied, Yukon was not able to spend all of its child care allocation in the first year of its agreement with the federal government, carrying over $2 million into 2022.

“Despite Yukon’s relative success in space-creation, its child care system still doesn’t the meet the needs of all families in the territory,” says Mitchell. “Funding families directly, instead of spaces that families may or may not use, is the best and most efficient way to help all families afford the type of care that works best for them.”

Child Care Funding Update: Yukon—Years One and Two (2021–22 and 2022–23) is freely available online. Previous child care funding updates are also available on the Cardus website.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
media@cardus.ca
613-241-4500 x508

Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society
Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.