National Day of Action for Early Learning and Child Care

Securing over $1 billion in investment for child care in Canada

Client

Child Care Now

Sectors

Gender Justice

Services

Campaign strategy

Media relations

Graphic design and illustration

When Canada faced a severe shortage of child care spaces, we partnered with Child Care Now on a National Day of Action Campaign that secured over $1 billion in federal funding to expand access to child care.

In fall 2023, hundreds of thousands of Canadian families couldn't access child care when they needed it, due to a significant shortage of child care spaces. Our client Child Care Now worked with us to lead a 'National Day of Action for Early Learning and Child Care' in order to push the government to address the shortage of spaces. The campaign successfully secured over $1 billion in investment to expand access to child care, as announced in the 2024 federal budget.

Two years before this campaign, in the spring of 2021, the federal government had announced the creation of a national child care program, pledging to cut child care fees to an average of $10 per day across Canada. The federal government’s promise to reduce child care fees was applauded as a commitment to supporting children, Canadian families, and our country’s economy. But two years after the $10 a day announcement, while fees had dropped, the question of access to child care remained — and hundreds of thousands of families could not find child care when they needed it, due to the severe shortage of child care spaces.

The National Day of Action campaign was planned to tell this story. We supported the campaign with communications strategy, graphic design and illustration, media relations, and content creation.

While creating the strategy for the campaign, we chose a strategic frame that zeroed in on this precise issue: the hundreds of thousands of Canadian families stuck without child care during a cost of living crisis. This messaging was carefully chosen to motivate the federal government to act on this issue, while also resonating with provincial and territorial governments across Canada. The campaign's "asks" directed at government focussed on capital investment in child care facilities and solving the workforce crisis in child care — caused by workers in the sector receiving low wages and poor working conditions.

Child Care Now and their provincial affiliates are trailblazing advocates for universal public and nonprofit child care. The success of this campaign was owed to the strong foundation that child care activists have built over decades of tireless work.

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Campaign Outcome

The campaign led to over $1 billion in investment, announced as part of the 2024 federal budget, for expanding child care access in Canada.

Announced in Budget 2024, this was a win for child care access — with investments devoted to increasing access to early learning and child care.

$1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants to allow public and not-for-profit child care providers to build new spaces and renovate their existing child care centres.
$48 million for student loan forgiveness for early childhood educators working in rural and remote areas.
$10 million to provide training to more early childhood educators, in order to build the talent pool needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care.

Building Heat During the National Day of Action

How did the National Day of Action build momentum ahead of successfully securing investment in the 2024 federal budget?

To dial up the heat on decision makers, we worked with the Child Care Now team to create and launch an open letter to the federal government (addressed to Minister Sudds and Minister Freeland) that received over 6,500 signatures from supporters across Canada.
The National Day of Action was supported by a wide range of politicians including BC Premier David Eby, Mayor of Toronto Olivia Chow, and Members of Parliament and provincial elected officials from across the country.
By leveraging the reach of provincial affiliates and activists across the country, the National Day of Action received over 30 media hits in various media outlets.
To help families and activists across the country participate in the campaign, we helped Child Care Now create a toolkit to spark engagement with the National Day of Action. The toolkit featured social media content, the open letter, and printable materials including buttons and posters.

Kind words from our client:

The communications strategy was brilliantly conceived and executed. LeBlanc (& co.) Communications provided us with the tools we needed to get our campaign messages across to the audiences we needed to reach. The campaign captured the attention of policy makers and the media. We engaged thousands of people who had not previously taken action for child care, and we significantly increased our list of potential donors. I recommend without hesitation this effective communications firm to other groups that want to make a big impact.

Morna Ballantyne

Executive Director, Child Care Now