Province and feds extending affordable child-care program in Ontario, but fees stay the same

Ontario and the federal government have agreed to extend the national affordable child-care program in the province for another four years, but it comes with no promises of further lowering the fees parents pay.

The province is one of only two, including Alberta, that had not reached longer-term deals beyond the program’s initial five years, and securing funding until at least 2031 will give operators and parents some certainty.

But what it may not do is see the program live up to its signature goal — lowering parent fees to an average of $10 a day.

While about half of the provinces are offering average fees at that level, Ontario’s are an average of $19 a day, capped at $22.

In its new four-year agreement with the federal government, Ontario has committed to maintain fees at that level until June 30, 2027.

What happens after that is still up for discussion.

The agreement provides stability for Ontario parents and child-care operators, federal Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said.

“Obviously this has been a challenging piece of work, but it’s been an amazing piece of work,” she said in an interview.

“There are still parents that are saving in Ontario about $9,000 per child, even with the rate being an average of $19.”

Waitlists continue to grow: minister

The four-year agreement comes with $12 billion from the federal government, and on top of that Ontario will also get its share of an additional $5.4 billion for the national program that Hajdu announced earlier this year.

The new money addresses Ontario’s fiscal hole, at least in the short term, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said.

“[Minister Hajdu] understood that there was a massive shortfall in her program and came back with more money, and this allows us to at least get probably to the end of [2027] with the current fees that we’re at,” he said in an interview.

“If they want to get down lower, then they’re going to have to provide significantly more dollars to do that. But this provides good stability for parents and for the operators. So I’m very happy with what she’s been able to accomplish.”

Hajdu said she has been hearing from parents more on the availability of child care. Waitlists in some regions of Ontario have continued to grow, in some cases by several hundred per cent since before the national program sparked increased demand.

The province was supposed to have created 86,000 affordable spaces by this year under the deal with the federal government, but has so far fallen short at just shy of 60,000.

Calandra said the province continues to work toward that target and expects a good deal of spaces to become available in the next year, as most new schools under construction have child care attached.

Ontario’s financial accountability officer has estimated that the demand spurred by lower fees would put the need for new spaces closer to 220,000.