Ontario needs to remove barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families
Ontario needs to remove barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families
September 14, 2023
By Michal Perlman, Petr Varmuza, Samantha Burns
In September, a major turnover in child care occurs, as preschoolers graduate to kindergarten and a new wave of preschoolers enters into early learning and care systems.
This year, the pressures on the child-care sector have increased dramatically as governments are radically decreasing the costs of child care for families as they implement Canada-wide early learning and child care (CWELCC) agreements.
The government of Ontario has projected significant increases in demand for child care as a result of lower fees. In these early days, we are not aware of evidence of this happening, but anecdotally this seems to be the case.
While provinces are talking about increasing the number of spaces, substantial labour shortages in staff (since pay and benefits are poor in this sector) and insufficient investment in physical spaces likely mean that increases in demand will far outpace increases in supply.
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