Child-care provider, parent react to new $22 a day cap

Parents with children under the age of six will be paying $22 a day or less for child-care in 2025, as long as their provider is part of the national $10-a-day program.

The province announced the new funding structure on Thursday.

Ontario parents are expected to pay an average of $19 a day starting on Jan. 1, though it could be as much as $22.

The start date of the $10-a-day program was originally set for September 2025 but has now been pushed back to March 2026.

Local impact

In Waterloo Region, 227 child-care providers have signed up for the $10-a-day model, also known as the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program. Only five local providers are not participating.

RisingOaks Early Learning has nine centres in the region. Lori Prospero, the organization’s CEO, said they’ve been waiting for updates on the CWELCC program since it was announced in 2022.

Lori Prospero the CEO of RisingOaks Early Learning in Kitchener. (Heather Senoran/CTV News)

“One of the things that's been difficult is, for a not-for-profit organization, we have a mandate to expand. But when you didn't know what the funding formula is, it's hard to go out into signed leases or to build a building to actually provide more child care,” Prospero explained.

At RisingOaks there are different costs depending on the age of the child. For infants, parents currently pay about $38 a day. Meaning next year, they’ll save about $16 dollars a day.

Waistlist woes

The cheaper child-care gets, however, the harder it is to get a guaranteed spot.

“Once we signed on to the CWELCC program, our waiting list ballooned,” admitted Prospero.

Before the $10-a-day program was announced there were over 5,500 children on the region's waitlist, according to Children’s Services for the Region of Waterloo.

Now there are more than 10,000 kids on the waitlist, with 6,000 needing immediate care.

“Waterloo Region is on track to achieving the funded growth targets set by the Ministry of Education,” a spokesperson for the region said in a statement to CTV News. “Under CWELCC, we have already added 1,013 new child care spaces and we will create 2,712 more by the end of 2026.”

The region added that even with significant growth, there still won’t be enough space for everyone.

Toddlers play in the sand at a RisingOaks centre in Kitchener, Ont. (Heather Senoran/CTV News)

Rachel Persaud, a Kitchener parent, said she waited more than two years for her 2-year-old to get child-care but she’s grateful to pay less next year.

“Everything’s expensive, as everyone knows, especially with kids. So any amount helps,” she said.

The new funding structure only applies to parents with kids who are under the age of six, meaning those with older kids are out of luck.

“Parents who would have had subsidy for infant [and] toddler preschool, some of them no longer require child-care fee subsidy, but then they get into the school age programs that are not reduced and those fees are still increasing to offset costs,” Prospero explained.

RisingOaks said it will continue to advocate for expanding the program to include older children.