Canada’s national child care advocacy association, Child Care Now, has welcomed a reduction in child-care fees in Ontario, while expressing concern that far too few families stand to benefit.
Child-care fees have been reduced from an average of $23 a day to an average of $19, and capped at $22. The fee reduction took effect on Wednesday.
Morna Ballantyne, Child Care Now’s executive director, said while the fee reduction will only be for parents with children six or younger in licensed child care, she’s “very happy” that fees are going down.
“What’s really good about the announcement … is that Ontario is now following what a number of other provinces have done, and that is introduce what we call a flat fee, so it doesn’t matter which child-care centre you have access to, you’ll be paying no more than $22 a day,” Ballantyne told CBC Toronto.
“In some cases you’ll be paying less and that’s why the average fee being charged across Ontario is lower than $22, so that’s exciting.”
Education Minister Todd Smith announced the reduction in August. At that time, he also announced a new funding formula for Ontario child-care operators, which he said would prevent closures and give operators certainty and stability.
“Given the feedback and the extensive consultation that’s taken place on the new funding formula, we’re pretty comfortable that those who are operating and those who want to operate are going to be able to do so in the province, creating those much needed spaces that families are looking for,” Smith said in an interview in August.
The new funding formula will see operators get a main pool of funding based on several factors, such as how many spaces they operate, how many children they serve in each age group and the region in which they’re located.
Officials say the new funding formula will ensure no operators in the $10-a-day program will experience a loss.
‘Life is expensive right now’: daycare operator
Franca Lombardi, who operates a daycare in York Region, welcomes the reduction, saying it provides a “break” for parents.
“It’s just important that parents need to know that operators, we’re on their side. We want them to have that break,” Lombardi told CBC Toronto.
“Everything, life is expensive right now. We’re not the bad guys. We’re just trying to get the money in their hands, leave us out of it so we can continue doing what we know needs to be done for the kids,” Lombardi said.
Lack of adequate child-care space still a problem: Ballantyne
Ballantyne said while the Ontario government is allocating more money for daycares, “the lack of spaces” remains a problem.
“The fee reduction will only be for parents with children in licensed child care … so it won’t benefit everybody,” she said.
“And of course, it will only benefit those who have access to licensed child care and, unfortunately, that’s still far too few families that are benefiting from the program just because there are not enough licensed spaces for all the families who want them,” she said.
According to Ballantyne, historically, there hasn’t been enough public funding to support high quality daycare programs, something she said was true for Ontario and the rest of the country. But she’s optimistic about recent developments.
“The new funding formula is going to be good, I think, for child-care operators. Of course we have to see how it goes. We’re going to monitor the situation really closely over the next year to see whether or not there’s still a shortfall,” Ballantyne said.