Excerpts
For many Toronto parents, lower fees haven’t brought relief when it comes to child care. The real crisis is finding a space at all.
A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) found that while Toronto’s overall coverage has increased from 41.5 to 46.5 licensed spaces per 100 children since 2021, “more than half of the city’s children still lack access.”
The analysis, based on the CCPA’s Child Care Licensing and Accessibility by Region (CLAR) database, found 14 of Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods fall far short of the “adequate” threshold of 60 child care spaces per 100 children.
Nearly all neighbourhoods with adequate coverage, are found in affluent downtown or midtown areas.
The worst-served communities — primarily in Etobicoke and Scarborough — fall below the 30 per spaces for every 100 children line. Researchers say these neighbourhoods are effectively “child care deserts” and highlight deep and growing inequity in access to care.
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A system strained by workforce shortages
Researchers point to two primary barriers to expanding child care in the city: insufficient physical spaces and a persistent shortage of qualified early childhood educators.
“The issue that we have right now really comes to two main problems,” Aragão said. “First, having enough spaces — in the sense of having buildings that can be transformed into child care centres. And the second one is related to workforce. Sometimes even when buildings and spaces are available, you do not have enough child care workers.”
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‘We need a systemic solution’
The CCPA’s findings come as Ontario’s Auditor General warns the province is falling behind on its child care commitments. Her office found that Ontario has created just 36,000 of the 48,000 new spaces it promised under the $10.23-billion federal–provincial agreement signed in 2022.
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