Ontario and the federal government have reached an agreement to extend the national affordable child-care program in the province for an additional four years. However, the agreement does not guarantee a further reduction in the fees paid by parents.
Ontario, along with Alberta, is one of the two provinces that had not previously secured longer-term deals beyond the initial five years of the program. The extension of funding until at least 2031 provides operators and parents with some level of certainty.
Despite this development, achieving the program’s primary objective of lowering parent fees to an average of $10 a day may remain challenging. While approximately half of the provinces have achieved this target, Ontario currently maintains an average daily fee of $19, with a cap at $22.
Under the new four-year agreement with the federal government, Ontario has committed to keeping fees at the current level until June 30, 2027. The future beyond this date is still subject to further discussions.
Federal Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu emphasized that the agreement offers stability for Ontario parents and child-care operators. The agreement includes $12 billion from the federal government, with an additional $5.4 billion allocated for the national program that was announced earlier this year.
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra acknowledged the financial support provided by Minister Hajdu, noting that it helps address the province’s fiscal challenges in the short term. However, he highlighted the need for additional funding to potentially lower fees further in the future.
While the immediate agreement brings a sense of relief to parents and operators, some stakeholders, such as Carolyn Ferns from the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, view it as a compromise rather than a definitive solution. Ferns emphasized the importance of creating more affordable child-care spaces to meet the growing demand in Ontario.
According to Minister Hajdu, the pressing issue highlighted by Ontario parents is the need for increased child-care availability. The province was expected to create 86,000 affordable spaces by this year but has fallen short, prompting a revised target date of March 31, 2027.
Amid concerns of escalating waitlists, Andrea Hannen of the Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario stressed the persistent challenges faced by operators in expanding services due to bureaucratic constraints and financial limitations. The need to raise wages for early childhood educators was also emphasized by industry experts to address workforce shortages and support the growth of child-care services in the province.