BILL NO. 167
(as introduced)
1st Session, 65th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
4 Charles III, 2025
Private Member's Public Bill
Affordable and Accessible Child Care Act
Claudia Chender
Dartmouth South
First Reading: October 2, 2025
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
An Act to Make Child Care
Affordable and Accessible
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 This Act may be cited as the Affordable and Accessible Child Care Act.
2 The purpose of this Act is to establish a publicly managed early learning and child care system that
(a) provides readily accessible, affordable and high-quality child care to Nova Scotian families;
(b) ensures parent fees are reduced to an average of not more than $10 per day by March 31, 2026, as established under the Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care;
(c) meets or exceeds the 5.9 spaces per 10 children under the age of six target by March 31, 2026, as established under the Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care;
(d) exclusively prioritizes not-for-profit and public providers in expanding child care spaces; and
(e) improves accessibility for parents by introducing a centralized waitlist.
3 In this Act, "Minister" means the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
4 This Act binds the Crown in right of the Province.
5 (1) Subject to Section 10, the Minister shall establish and maintain a centralized early learning and child care waitlist to
(a) provide equitable and transparent access to licensed child care spaces;
(b) ensure that placement decisions are based on clear, publicly available criteria;
(c) prevent duplication of applications across multiple providers;
(d) collect and publish anonymized data on demand, wait times, coverage rates and demographics; and
(e) inform prioritization of child care space investment decisions.
(2) All child-care providers who receive funding from the Government must participate in the waitlist.
6 Subject to Section 10, the Minister shall ensure that
(a) by March 31, 2026, the effective fee paid by parents for regulated child care is $10 per day, on average; and
(b) beginning no later than January 1, 2026, the Government transitions from a flat-amount subsidy model to a target-fee subsidy model, whereby the Government pays the difference between provider fees and $10 per day directly to providers.
7 (1) Upon the coming into force of this Act, all new child-care spaces funded by the Government must be exclusively delivered by not-for-profit or public providers.
(2) The Government shall not provide capital or operational funding for the creation of new for-profit child-care spaces.
8 (1) The Minister shall identify and announce by March 31, 2026, a sufficient number of child-care spaces to meet the coverage target of 5.9 spaces per 10 children under the age of six established under the Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care.
(2) For the purpose of subsection (1),
(a) only licensed spaces serving children under six years of age are counted toward the 5.9 spaces per 10 children target; and
(b) before- and after-school programs for school-aged children, including the Nova Scotia Before and After Program, may not be included in the calculation of progress toward the 5.9 spaces per 10 children coverage benchmark.
9 The Minister shall table an annual early learning and child care report in the House of Assembly that includes
(a) progress toward achieving $10-per-day effective fees across all age groups and regions;
(b) the timeline and status of the transition from a flat-amount subsidy model to a target-fee subsidy model;
(c) the number and distribution of new child-care spaces created for children under six;
(d) the coverage rate, expressed as spaces per 10 children under six, Province-wide and by region;
(e) separate accounting of new before- and after-school spaces for children aged six to 12; and
(f) the percentage of spaces operated by not-for-profit and public providers.
10 (1) Where the report outlined in Section 8 indicates that the Government has failed to achieve a target under this Act, the Auditor General shall conduct an independent investigation into the reasons for the failure and file a report with findings and recommendations with the Clerk of the House of Assembly.
(2) Where the Auditor General reports a failure under this Act, the Minister shall table, within 90 days, a plan in the House of Assembly setting out the steps, funding and time required to restore compliance.
11 The money required for the purpose of this Act must be paid out of money appropriated for that purpose by the Legislature.