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Child-care operators and advocates are raising concerns about the Ford government's plan to charge daycares located in government buildings "full market-rate rents" starting next year.
The government has said funding through the $10-a-day program should offset the increases, but some operators say they're worried about whether the new rental costs — which are set to increase from nominal amounts to, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars — will be fully covered.
Several child-care operators were informed last year that the provincial government would be "implementing full market rate rents for child-care operators located in government buildings whose leases have expired," according to a letter from Infrastructure Ontario Vice-President James Harvey that The Trillium obtained.
"While this will result in increased operating costs, child-care operators should be able to offset the cost increases with federal funding made available by the Ministry of Education under the Canada-wide Early Learning Child Care initiative," the letter sent last summer stated.
Carolyn Ferns, public policy coordinator with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC), said she sees the decision to increase rent for several child-care operators as the province "shirking their responsibility to child care."
"Is there so much funding going to child care that we can afford to be using it to fill the coffers of other parts of the government?" Ferns said. "These programs were being given nominal rent because they were child-care programs, providing a community good, but now that the federal government has come and we have the Canada-wide system, the Ontario government's going to take market rent from child-care programs, so it's just them stepping back from their own responsibility to fund child care."
"Is there so much funding going to child care that we can afford to be using it to fill the coffers of other parts of the government?" Ferns said. "These programs were being given nominal rent because they were child-care programs, providing a community good, but now that the federal government has come and we have the Canada-wide system, the Ontario government's going to take market rent from child-care programs, so it's just them stepping back from their own responsibility to fund child care."
While the letter said the rent increases would kick in January 2024, at least one operator said the date was moved to this September, before the government recently informed operators that the rent hike would be postponed to September 2025 "in light of the Ministry of Educations announcement that the implementation of the new Canada wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) funding approach will be effective Jan 2025."
The government has said this is part of "improving and streamlining the management of government real estate."
"As a part of this change, we are working with child-care operators to negotiate new leases that reflect market value and are consistent with the government's plan to manage provincial real estate assets in a consistent, responsible, and sustainable way, while also helping make life better for Ontarians by working more efficiently," said Ash Milton, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, in response to questions from The Trillium.
"We’re also making sure that child-care providers who operate out of government-owned buildings can meet these increases with little to no effect on their operations. This is supported by the new cost-based funding approach which comes into effect January 2025, ahead of changes to rents in September 2025," said Milton. "More details will be made available later this year on how this program will be structured, including eligible accommodations such as rent."
The government did not provide a list of all the daycares facing rent increases, nor would it confirm or deny that there are around a dozen affected child-care centres.
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