Canada-Ontario early years and child care agreement

Overview

The Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system will:

• give families access to more affordable and high-quality child care options
• help lower child care fees for parents or guardians of children under the age of 6
• increase child care spaces
• support the child care workforce
• support inclusive child care

Licensed child care providers can participate in the CWELCC system to help reduce fees. Licensed child care providers must tell parents and guardians whether the program is enrolled in the CWELCC system through their parent handbook.

If your licensed child care provider is not enrolled, your fees will not be reduced.

As a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 6, you do not need to apply to get a fee reduction.

Accomplishments to date

Ontario's action plan

The agreement focuses on 5 key pillars:

• lowering fees
• increasing access
• enhancing high-quality child care
• supporting inclusion
• enhancing data and reporting

Lowering fees

To ensure child care is more affordable for families, we are lowering average fees for CWELCC-enrolled licensed child care programs through a phased approach:

1. On March 28, 2022, we announced a child care fee reduction of up to 25% for children under age 6, retroactive to April 1, 2022.
2. By December 31, 2022, we further reduced child care fees up to 37% bringing the provincial average fee to $23 per day (50% of 2020 fees).
3. Starting in January 2025, we will cap fees at $22 per day for children under age 6.
4. By March 2026, lowering licensed child care fees to an average of $10 per day.

Increasing access

To provide families with more child care options and address increasing demand for child care, we are:

• creating approximately 86,000 new licensed child care spaces by the end of 2026
• supporting expansion of new child care spaces in geographic areas and diverse communities where they are needed most (for example, children with special needs, Indigenous and Francophone communities)

Enhancing quality

To ensure families have access to high-quality licensed child care, we are:

• improving compensation for low-wage Registered Early Childhood Educators working with children up to age 12 in licensed child care
• implementing a workforce strategy to support RECEs employed by CWELCC-enrolled child care providers and a multipronged strategy to better support the recruitment and retention of qualified professionals and professional learning supports for child care and early years staff

Supporting inclusion

To support the needs of diverse communities and populations, we have engaged with a broad range of partners to:

• ensure space expansion plans and all child care and early years programs are designed to support the needs of vulnerable and diverse populations in your communities (such as Indigenous, Francophone, Black and other racialized groups, newcomers, low-income families and children with special needs)
• gather data and assess the barriers to access for children of diverse populations and children with varying abilities
• update Ontario’s Access and Inclusion Framework, which supports service system managers in developing and implementing local service plans with an increased focus on access as it relates to inclusion
  • this includes identifying their priority neighbourhoods and/or priority populations for space creation under CWELCC

Enhanced data and reporting

To monitor our progress and support families, we will:

• use evidence-based data to evaluate and improve how the child care system supports children and families
• report regularly on our progress toward meeting federal requirements using enhanced data collection and analytics capabilities

What this means for families

Parents or guardians of children under the age of 6 do not have to apply to receive a child care fee reduction.

You may be eligible for reduced fees if:

• you pay more than $12 per day for child care and your child:
  • is under the age of 6
  • turns 6 years old and is enrolled in a licensed preschool, kindergarten or family age group or a licensed home child care premises, until June 30
• your licensed child care provider is enrolled in the CWELCC system

The amount that you will save depends on what the child care provider charges and may vary by region.

Illustrative Examples

Child care subsidy

The Ontario child care fee subsidy program will continue to be available for families who are eligible to apply for financial support to help them pay for licensed child care.

Fee subsidy eligibility will continue to be determined through the income test that is administered by your local service system manager. The amount you will pay depends on your family's income and is reduced by 50% for eligible children, effective December 31, 2022. To get more information or apply for the child care subsidy, please contact your local service system manager.

Child care tax credit

The Ontario Child Care Tax Credit program will continue to be in effect for eligible families.

Find out if you are eligible to receive tax credit to help with child care costs.

What this means for child care providers

Licensed child care programs enrolled in the CWELCC system receive funding to plan for and deliver early learning and child care programs.

Where new CWELCC spaces will be created

We are prioritizing creating CWELCC spaces in regions with a history of low child care space availability. This will create affordable child care spaces where they are needed most.

This focus includes rural communities, Indigenous and Francophone communities and underserved populations, including:

• children with special needs
• low-income children
• vulnerable children
• children from diverse communities

Local service system managers:

• will assess enrolment applications for a match with local priorities
• may have a limited number of spaces

Eligible child care programs

You are eligible to apply for enrolment in the CWELCC system if you are a licensed:

• child care centre
• home child care agency

You must serve children under the age of 6 (or turning 6 before June 30).

If you are a home child care provider who is registered with a licensed agency, ask the agency if they are enrolled in CWELCC and what this means for you.

Ineligible child care programs

Unlicensed child care programs are not eligible to participate in the CWELCC system. This includes:

• unlicensed home child care providers
• authorized recreation programs
• unlicensed school board-operated extended day programs

If you provide an unlicensed program and want to participate, consider either:

• applying for a licence
• joining a licensed home child care agency

Learn how to apply for a child care licence.

How to apply for CWELCC

Contact your local service system manager to:

• check if your program aligns with their expansion plans
• get information on how to apply for CWELCC

To enroll in CWELCC, you must show that your program aligns with local priorities (for example, it is in a neighbourhood with an underserved population).

When you join CWELCC

If you participate in the CWELCC system, you will enter into a service agreement with your local service system manager. This agreement outlines:

• the amount of funding your program (or programs) will receive
• the guidelines you must follow

You can use our cost-based funding estimator to find out how much funding your program might get as of January 1, 2025.

Requirements

Some of the requirements you will need to meet include:

• showing that you are financially viable
• setting base fees in line with the regulation and agreement with your local service system manager
• following the rules set out in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 and its regulations
• maintaining your existing capacity for eligible children for whom you are receiving fee reduction funding
• providing information to support data collection and reporting

If you don't participate in CWELCC

Licensed child care programs that do not participate in the CWELCC system must continue to follow the rules and requirements for operating a licensed child care program.