Social Policy in Ontario

New child care fees take effect in Ontario on Jan. 1: Here’s what families need to know 

Posted on January 3, 2025 in Child & Family Delivery System

Source: Toronto.com — Authors: Janis Ramsay

Toronto.com – news
Jan 2, 2025.   By Janis Ramsay

Child care fees were capped at $22 a day for children under six in many licensed child care companies as of Jan. 1.

Parents may get a bit of a break in their daycare fees, now that a new piece of Ontario legislation has kicked in.

Child-care fee reductions in Ontario

As of Jan. 1, 2025, fees are capped at $22 per day for children under the age of six — but only if your licensed child care provider is enrolled with the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system.

In some cases, child care centres may actually charge less than that — $19 a day — so parents are already getting some additional savings.

According to a Statistics Canada report, parents in 2023 paid an average of $7,557 annually for the main full-time (30 or more hours per week) child care arrangement for their child five years of age and younger.

This was an average of $630 per month for full-time child care, or $30 per day.

However, some parents saw child care fees even higher than that — above $40 a day.

Child care operators react to new fees

“This week’s child care fee reductions are a huge relief for families across (Ontario),” Parents for Child Care shared on the X platform. “Fees are now capped at $22/day — on the way to $10/day in 2026. Let’s keep pushing for full funding of decent work for ECEs and expansion of spaces so that every family has affordable child care.”

The fee cap comes from the province signing a $10 a day child care agreement with the federal government’s Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system in 2022.

According to the province, there were more than 5,770 licensed child care centres, 148 licensed home child care agencies and around 505,000 licensed spaces in Ontario as of March 2023.

New funding formula for child care operators

Also as of Jan. 1, a new funding formula for child care operators enrolled with the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system came into effect.

“This new formula will provide the stability and predictability operators need to continue to expand and create more affordable child care spaces for Ontario families,” Ontario Minister of Education Todd Smith said in an earlier news release.

When will Ontario families see $10-a-day child care?

The next step in the program is to lower licensed child care fees to an average of $10 per day by March 2026.

The province has not released further information on when or how this will actually come to fruition.

https://www.toronto.com/news/new-child-care-fees-take-effect-in-ontario-on-jan-1-heres-what-families-need/article_4b74d4e4-4710-5411-9fe5-88e66b66e1d8.html

Tags: child care, featured, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living

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