Ontario has secured a one-year extension with the federal government for the national $10-a-day child-care program, giving parents reassurance their fees won’t rise for at least 12 more months, but with much hard work still to be done.

The program that lowers parents’ child-care fees — now $19 a day on average in Ontario as an interim step toward $10 — had been set to expire March 31.

Most provinces and territories signed extensions with the federal government before this year’s federal election, but Ontario only signed an agreement-in-principle to continue the program.

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra had said the federal government needed to address a shortfall of $2 billion per year that would occur if the current funding structure is left in place, and warned that parent fee

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