The Government of Ontario is planning to spend $2.2 billion to ensure that every child in the province has access to free licensed child care from the age two and a half until they start kindergarten at age four.
“Not being able to find or afford child care is stressful. It is troubling, and it is holding families back at a time when it is already hard enough to get ahead,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told parents at a Toronto public school on Tuesday, where she announced the new child care plan, which will begin in 2020. “Our plan will make sure kids are learning and growing in a safe environment.”
The average Ontario family with one preschooler spends about $17,000 on child care prior to kindergarten. More than 100,000 kids could be served under the new initiative, expected to be the cornerstone of the Wynne government’s pre-election budget that will be tabled on Wednesday of this week.
About 96,000 preschoolers are currently enrolled in licensed care across Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, according to an analysis by University of Toronto economist Gord Cleveland, who devised the new plan for the Wynne government.
The $2.2 billion includes $162.5 million in operating funding over the next three years to support continued expansion and fee subsidies for younger and older kids that will make child care more affordable for low- and moderate-income families. The government also plans to create a provincial wage grid for child care workers that will bring early childhood educator wages up to the level of educators currently working in the school system.
