News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "To support the child care sector implement these new measures, Ontario is committing $395M from 2022/23 to 2026/27 to help achieve the average of $10 /day commitment and to ensure child care workers for the 6-12 age group benefit from the wage increases committed to for child care workers for the 0-5 age group."

Excerpt: "The benefits of this funding will begin immediately, reducing fees in participating licensed child care for children five years old and younger by up to 25 per cent beginning in April 2022, through retroactive rebates to parents between May and December. In December 2022, parents will see another reduction. In total, by the end of 2022, fees for families will be reduced by 50 per cent, on average. Ontario will achieve an average of $10‐a‐day child care by September 2025. To ensure a sustainable future that protects Ontario taxpayers and puts parents first, the Canada–Ontario agreement also ensures that the cost of implementing the agreement will continue to be monitored by Canada and Ontario with an automatic financial review process in 2024–25."

Excerpt: "Child care staff employed by Licensees with maximum wage increases specified under the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019 (PSPSFGA) may not be eligible for an increase in compensation to the wage floor or to the $1 per hour annual wage increase. Licensees are required to meet any applicable obligations under the PSPSFGA."

Excerpt: "Ontario values the important role of child care and early years professionals. Since 2015, Ontario has supported recruitment and retention of RECEs in child care through the Ontario Wage Enhancement Grant. In 2021, Ontario invested $203 million to help attract and retain RECEs within Ontario's child care system and support access to stable, high quality child care programs."

Excerpt: "After two years of pandemic disruptions, Ontario today launched its Plan to Catch Up for the 2022-23 school year. The plan, which is supported by the government’s historic investments in education, starts with students back in classrooms, on time, with the full school experience including extracurriculars like clubs, band and field trips. “Our government is looking ahead as we remain squarely focused on ensuring students receive the best stable learning experience possible, and that starts with them being in class, on time, with all of the experiences students deserve,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “We have a plan for students to catch up, including the largest tutoring program in Ontario’s history, a modernized skills-focused curriculum to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow, and enhanced mental health supports.”"

Excerpt: "This addendum to the Ontario Child Care and EarlyON Child and Family Centres Service Management and Funding Guideline (2022) (“CWELCC Guidelines”) will provide CMSMs/DSSABs with information on recent changes arising from the new investments through the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Agreement."

Excerpt: "Parents of young children will soon see the cost of daycare drop dramatically with the province having negotiated a fair child-care deal with the federal government."

Excerpt: "To expand child care, Ontario is partnering with the federal government to create 86,000 new, high‐quality, affordable child care spaces by 2026. Of this total, Ontario has already created more than 15,000 new spaces, including over 1,500 new licensed child care spaces in schools."

Description: "This report analyzes the Ministry of Education’s spending plan as set out in the 2022 Ontario Budget and the 2022-23 Expenditure Estimates. The report discusses the FAO’s spending projection by program area and identifies key assumptions, issues and risks. The final chapter of the report compares planned spending for the 2022-23 fiscal year against actual spending in 2021-22."

Excerpt: "Total investments from the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada in the child care and early years program will total more than $3.9B in 2023. Funding will support the implementation of fee reductions, workforce supports, and other measures. This investment represents an increase of $1.28B, or 44%, over the 2022 calendar year. This investment also includes an additional $24M from the renewed Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care Agreement to support child care and early years program delivery. A one-time transitional grant of $85.5M is also included to help offset and assist with the impact of administrative funding changes and provide stability to the sector as the ministry continues its work on the development of the new child care funding formula."

Excerpt: "To date, 92 per cent of Ontario’s licensed child care sites have enrolled in the CWELCC system. Families across the province with children in these centres are already seeing fee reductions of up to 25 per cent, retroactive to April 1, 2022. By the end of this year, families with children under the age of six in participating licensed child care programs will see a further fee reduction of up to 50 per cent relative to 2020 levels."

Excerpt: "Updated: Workforce compensation funding will be provided to offset wage increases for non-RECE staff associated with the increased minimum wage that came into effect October 1, 2022; Clarified: Funding will be provided to support a $1/hour annual increase for RECE staff whose hourly wage, including the wage enhancement grant (WEG), is at or above the wage floor for the year, to a cap of $25/hour; Added: Examples to illustrate the calculation of workforce compensation for the 2023 wage floor and the annual $1 increase, including accounting for those whose wages that fall between $24.01-$24.99/hour; who will receive a top up to their wages to reach the $25/hour cap; Clarified: Licensees may increase wages beyond the $1/hour annual increase; however, CWELCC workforce compensation funding may only be used to fund the incremental amount required to bring RECE staff wages to the wage floor and for up to $1/hour wage increase."