The provincial Liberals are promising free licensed childcare for kids aged two-and-a-half until they are eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten at four.
The party says the plan would begin in 2020 will save the average family some $17,000 per child while costing the province $2.2 billion.
An analysis by the Centre for Policy Alternatives has found the average cost of a preschool childcare space in Toronto is $1, 212 a month; $1,000 in Brampton, Markham, Mississauga and Vaughan.
In NEWSTALK 1010/DART Insight and Communications' 'Pulse of Toronto' poll released in October, 70% of respondents were in favour of fully-funded daycare. The poll did not address any particular age bracket.
The Premier says affordable childcare is the most common issue raised in regard to the gender pay gap in Ontario.
"If we don't do something to give more women the choice to return to work after having kids, and do it on their own terms, then we will never achieve gender equality," Wynne says.
The child care initiative is the latest in a string of big-ticket spending announcements the government has made in the run up to the budget.
With files from Tiffany Hendsbee and the Canadian Press