The national daycare program established by Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in Ottawa recorded a significant increase in applications. However, a shortage of spaces and staff threatens its success, according to experts.

The federal government had promised to halve the cost of child care services in the first year of the program and reduce daily fees to $10 per day for each child in participating Canadian provinces by 2026.

This plan is accompanied by federal funding of about $30 billion over five years to help provinces offset the costs of a national early learning and child care program. The plan also includes the creation of 250,000 daycare spaces across Canada.

The record number of enrollments on waiting lists shows there is a significant shortage of spaces. Ballantyne also points to a shortage of educators across the country.

Additionally, the major challenge for the program is finding and retaining staff due to low wages.

The national daycare program agreement between each province or territory on one side and the federal government on the other requires provinces and territories to establish a framework that sets minimum wages and explains how these wages will increase over time.

Also, the federal government left it to the provinces and territories to determine the minimum wage. Wage increases occurred differently across provinces and territories.

For example, in the Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada, the minimum wage for fully qualified early childhood educators was $30 per hour, or slightly over $32 per hour in rural communities.

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan authorities granted a wage increase of up to $2 per hour and promised to present their wage framework in 2023.

The neighboring province of Alberta in the west gave daycare workers wage increases and one-time payments, while Nova Scotia in the east raised wages by up to 30%.

In Ontario, the largest province by population and economy size, educators began earning a minimum wage of $18 per hour as of April 1, and $20 per hour for supervisors. These salaries will rise, respectively, to $19 and $21 per hour next year.

In New Brunswick in the east, those with a one-year early childhood education certificate earn $23.47 per hour, while untrained workers earn $16.90 per hour.

As for British Columbia, the largest of the four western provinces by population, educator wage increases were about $4 per hour.