Ontario’s New Child-Care Funding Scheme Will Force Centre Closures

Commentary The government of Ontario recently announced its revamp of funding for licensed centres covered by the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program (CWELCC)—also known as the $10-a-day system. In an interview with CP24 on Aug. 15, former Education Minister Todd Smith said the new funding scheme would provide child-care operators with certainty and stability, that it was simple and easy to administer, and that it would set centres up to grow more spaces. 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....