In its 2021 federal budget, the Liberal government introduced its national child care plan. It proposed up to $30 billion in new spending over five years, and then $9.2 billion annually on an ongoing basis to establish national government-regulated child care at an average out-of-pocket cost to families of $10 per day. The stated objective was to build a high-quality, affordable, and accessible child care system across Canada.

The early evidence on the effect of the government program is not encoura