Good practice

Sistema Pancanadiense de Aprendizaje y Cuidado Infantil (guarderías a 10 dólares/día)

Canada · Ottawa · See the Canada profile

Desde 2021, Canadá ha firmado acuerdos bilaterales con todas las provincias y territorios para reducir las tarifas de guardería hacia 10 dólares/día, coincidiendo con una participación laboral récord de las madres y unas 29.000 madres adicionales empleadas a finales de 2025.

~16% → 5%

Gasto en cuidado infantil como porcentaje de la renta familiar neta (2021-2025)

75.8% → 79.6%

Participación laboral, madres con hijos pequeños (2019-2023)

29,000

Madres adicionales empleadas atribuibles al programa (2021-2025)

112,000 of 250,000+

Nuevas plazas de cuidado infantil creadas vs meta (by 2024/25)

Details

Maturity: Scaling
Promoter: Employment and Social Development Canada (federal government, with provincial/territorial bilateral agreements)
Period: 2021–present
Keywords: care economy, childcare, early learning, labour force participation, federalism

Context

Desde 2021, el Gobierno de Canadá ha firmado acuerdos bilaterales de aprendizaje temprano y cuidado infantil a escala nacional con todas las provincias y territorios, comprometiendo transferencias federales (36.800 millones de CAD adicionales presupuestados para 2026-27 a 2030-31) a cambio de reducir las tarifas reguladas de guardería hacia una media de 10 dólares al día. En febrero de 2025, ocho provincias y territorios ofrecían el cuidado a 10 dólares/día o menos y todos los demás habían reducido las tarifas al menos a la mitad.

Results

El gasto medio de los padres en cuidado infantil cayó de poco menos del 16% de la renta familiar neta antes de 2021 al 5% en enero de 2025, y la participación laboral de las madres con hijos pequeños alcanzó el récord del 79,6% en 2023. Un análisis independiente del Centre for the Study of Living Standards (junio de 2026) estimó 29.000 madres adicionales empleadas y unos 2.700 millones de CAD anuales añadidos al PIB, mientras que el Auditor General federal constató que solo unas 112.000 de las más de 250.000 nuevas plazas previstas se habían creado hasta 2024/25.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-05
Employment and Social Development Canada (federal government, with provincial/territorial bilateral agreements) — accessed 2026-07-05
Canada.ca — Toward $10-a-Day: Early Learning and Child Care Backgrounder — accessed 2026-07-05
The Globe and Mail — More moms in work force, increased GDP as result of national $10-a-day child-care program — accessed 2026-07-05
The Globe and Mail — Five years into $10-a-day national child-care plan, many of its promises remain unfulfilled — accessed 2026-07-05

Quality score: 96/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 4% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

A federal-cost-shared bilateral-agreement model transferable to other federations, though it depends on a specific fiscal-transfer architecture not all countries have.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Maternal labour-force participation with young children rose to a record 79.6% (2023) from 75.8% (2019), concurrent with the fee cuts, per government and independent reporting.

Effectiveness1/1

Average child-care cost as a share of after-tax family income fell from ~16% to 5% (Jan 2025), directly achieving the programme's affordability objective in most jurisdictions.

Efficiency1/1

Delivered through existing federal-provincial transfer mechanisms rather than a new delivery agency, though the Auditor-General found space-creation lagging targets, reflecting execution costs.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Centre for the Study of Living Standards' independent June 2026 econometric analysis (Ali Shariati) quantified 29,000 jobs and CAD 2.7B/year in GDP using Labour Force Survey data.

Sustainability1/1

Multi-year bilateral agreements plus a further CAD 36.8 billion committed for 2026-27–2030-31 with built-in 3% annual escalators indicate durable federal funding commitment.

Achievement / evidence1/1

Concrete, government- and independent-verified milestones: 8 jurisdictions at $10/day, record maternal employment, and a quantified GDP/employment effect.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Explicitly designed and marketed as a maternal-employment policy, with government tracking disaggregated by mothers of young children, showing gender is central to programme design.

Curator validation1/1

Figures cross-verified between the federal government's own backgrounder (canada.ca) and an independent economist's analysis reported by The Globe and Mail, converging on consistent employment estimates.

Cite this

Evidoria. Sistema Pancanadiense de Aprendizaje y Cuidado Infantil (guarderías a 10 dólares/día). Persistent ID: 08cc62ac-431b-4c88-b6b2-88a4c68f7932.

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