Indira Naidoo-Harris was named associate minister of education Thursday, gaining a new responsibility for early years and child care.

Naidoo-Harris joined cabinet in June as the associate minister of finance responsible for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) — but quickly found herself not responsible for much, as the ORPP planning is being wound down in anticipation of an agreement for a Canadian Pension Plan enhancement.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the appointment with a press conference at a YMCA in Toronto. Naidoo-Harris became emotional, and apologized for that, when she thanked the premier.

“Thank you so much for giving me this wonderful opportunity,” she said, as her voice became choked up. “This is an important appointment and I take it very seriously.”

Naidoo-Harris spoke about coming from a family of educators in South Africa during apartheid.

“I learned at a young age about the importance of education; education is gift,” she said. “It’s also something no one can take away from them. It’s path to success for children like me, from South Africa, and I know it’s path to success for all children.”

Naidoo-Harris now is tasked with improving child care in Ontario — parents complain of prohibitively high fees and long wait lists — by “putting in place a renewed and co-ordinated system,” over the next three years, which will include spending $120 million to create about 4,000 licensed child-care spaces in schools and spending $269 million to increase for early childhood educators and other child caregivers.

She’ll also be responsible for working with the federal government as it develops its promised National Early Learning and Childcare Framework. Details of those plans are scarce, but the election promise was to “deliver affordable, high-quality, flexible, and fully inclusive child care for Canadian families.”

In an interview with the Star this summer, Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister for families, children and social development, reportedly did not rule out some kind of universal child-care plan.

Indira Naidoo-Harris handed the child-care file

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