Ontario signs $435-million child-care deal with Ottawa

Ontario will receive $435 million over three years from the federal government to be invested in child care.

Ottawa signed a multilateral agreement earlier this week with the provinces and territories except Quebec and British Columbia, and today the federal and Ontario ministers unveiled the details of Ontario's bilateral deal.

Ontario's minister responsible for early years and child care says each year about $100 million will support access to high-quality, licensed child-care programs, about $40 million to child and family programming at centres across the province, and about $5 million to early childhood educator training.

Indira Naidoo-Harris says the investment will give an estimated 11,200 more children access to licensed child care spaces.

The federal money is on top of Ontario's existing commitment to create 100,000 spaces over five years.

Ottawa's framework will allocate a total of $1.2 billion to the provinces over the next three years.