Ontario’s Updated Child-Care Funding Scheme Could Lead to Centre Closures
Commentary
What the then-minister didn’t mention was that the scheme cuts provincial funding to child-care centres that are not part of the CWELCC. The cut will impact between 8 percent and 10 percent of all of the licensed centres in Ontario. That’s some 500 centres that are now at high risk of closure. Most are woman-owned. Some had applied to be part of the CWELCC but were rejected—typically because they were either too new or were run as “for-profits,” i.e., small businesses.
The funding cut means that low- and middle-income families who qualify for provincial fee subsidies will no longer be able to access these centres, although those currently enrolled may be grandfathered for a period of time. Additionally, the staff at these centres will no longer be covered under provincial programs that contribute significantly to their wages. This will force many of the impacted centres to close their doors or dramatically raise their fees.
Except that this public system is better at creating child-care bureaucracy than it is at creating child-care spaces. Especially in Ontario, where municipal bureaucracies are tasked by the provincial bureaucracy to administer the taxpayer funding allocated by the federal child-care bureaucracy. The “simple and easy-to-administer system” touted by the former education minister still requires child-care centres to negotiate many aspects of their budgets annually with their local municipality. This includes any plans for growth, which, whether within the $10-a-day system or not, must also be negotiated with the provincial child-care bureaucracy.
Everyone else will continue to face growing waitlists and limited access to licensed child care, not only within the $10-per-day system, but increasingly, outside of it.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.