Ontario says changes to daycare funding moving ahead as private operators protest at Queen's Park

Ontario’s education minister says the province will be moving forward with planned changes to its $10-a-day child care funding formula despite calls from private daycare operators asking to put the move on hold.

Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop made the comments to reporters as several private daycare operators in the GTA closed their doors to take part in a protest at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.

“We introduced a funding formula and the operators were part of those conversations,” Dunlop said Tuesday. “We will be moving forward January 1st.”

Independent daycare operators across Ontario have been speaking out against what they say are the negative impacts of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program, the national $10-a-day program that has reduced parent fees by more than 50 per cent since it was implemented in 2022.

At issue, they say, is the way the province plans to fund these centres in the New Year.

Staring January 1, the province will be moving away from a revenue replacement model to a cost-based funding formula.

Additionally, the province announced that it would be capping parent fees at $22 a day across Ontario starting in January.

Jacky Sheppard, a spokesperson for the Private Operators Group, which represents some private daycare operators in the province, previously told CP24.com that independent centres are a risk of closure if the province moves forward with these changes.

“That changes everything because now we’re not focusing on our quality and being able to make our own decisions. We’re now being controlled completely on what we spend and how we spend it,” she said in an interview with CP24.com earlier this month.

“We’re having to make the kind of changes that no industry would take. It’s a complete takeover. It takes away all of our authority, it takes away all of this decision-making, and it really puts us into working for the government, which is not fair.”

Debbie Cunha, owner of the Little Kids Daycare in Oakville, told CP24 on Monday that she believes things like replacing a broken refrigerator would now require daycare operators to go to the municipality to ask permission to buy a new one. Staffing decisions would also now be out of the hands of operators, as they are only allowed to staff per the ratio requirements outlined by the ministry, she said.

Sally Shapiro, owner and supervisor of Tower Hill Child Care Centre in Richmond Hill, told CP24 Tuesday that operators are concerned about the quality of care.

“After this program comes into place as of January, the quality of care in our daycares is going to diminish,” she said at the Queen’s Park rally. “We believe that the funding needs to go directly to the parents and leave our businesses out of it.”

When asked whether she is concerned that centres may shut down, Dunlop noted that the new funding formula should provide all centres with adequate funding to continue to operate.

She added that she has recently met with her federal counterpart about the ongoing issues of funding the $10-a-day program in Ontario and said she has asked Ottawa to come to the table with more cash.

Zoe Prassoulis, owner of Zoe’s Tender Years Child Care Inc. in Woodbridge, said operators want to see the provincial government put the funding formula change on hold to allow for additional consultation.

“We are asking the government to put a pause on this program and really sit down with operators, on the ground operators, and discuss the program… We know exactly what it entails to run a $10-a-day program.”

Dunlop said while she will meet with operators on Thursday to hear their concerns, the province has every intention of moving ahead with the changes on January 1st.

Some private operators in the GTA have also threatened to pull out of CWELCC as a result of the changes coming next year.

Letters were sent out to parents at many private daycares across the GTA earlier this month, warning that they may have to drop out of the program if adjustments are not made. This would mean parents that had previously seen a major reduction in fees could go back to paying upwards of $2,000 a month per child.

While some private operators in the province are unhappy about the upcoming changes, Carolyn Ferns, the policy coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, previously told CP24.com that many non-profit centres she works with believe the new funding formula is a step in the right direction.

“Their reaction to this funding formula is very different,” Ferns said of non-profit operators.

Not-for-profit daycare centres make up 70 per cent of daycare spaces in the province while for-profit centres are capped at 30 per cent.

Ferns said as part of the new funding formula, benchmark funding, based on the average cost in each region, will be provided to centres as well as legacy top-up payments to cover additional costs.

“Then on top of that, there’s also funding in lieu of profit or surplus,” Ferns said. “Those are things that I think most people would think are reasonable.”