In their 2004 election platform, the Liberals promised to spend $5 billion over five years. Martin now says his government would kick in another $6 billion starting in 2009, when the first commitment runs out.
Paul Martin, speaking at a YMCA child-care facility, Saint John, N.B.
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"We'll see how happy you are 20 minutes from now if you still have to be sitting there and be quiet," Martin joked.
Martin's announcement comes a day after Conservative Leader Stephen Harper set out his party's child-care plan, the key component of which would be a $1,200 annual allowance for parents of young children.
Martin dismissed the Tory plan as not about child care at all.
"There's going to be no early learning, no regulation, no insistence on high quality, so it's simply an empty box," Martin said. "That's not a child-care plan. What it really is is maybe a kind of baby bonus, but that's it."
The child-care plan extension is the first major policy announcement by the Liberals, who have been mostly reacting to Tory proposals since the campaign for the Jan. 23 vote started a week ago.
"We're here to discuss the next steps that we want to take towards a permanent and nationwide system of early learning and child care," Martin said.
"Creating a nationwide system of early learning and child care is a great national endeavour. It speaks to the good that government can do."
