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Ontario is not on track to meet its targets on child-care fees, number of spaces created or percentage of qualified staff within the $10-a-day system, the province's auditor general has found.
Shelley Spence's office released a report Wednesday looking at Ontario's progress in implementing the national child-care program and found that while several provinces have already lowered parent fees to an average of $10 a day, Ontario likely won't meet that unless it makes some changes.
"The $10 a day is achievable, but the next day it may be a problem," Spence said at a news conference.
While Ontario has an agreement-in-principle with the federal government saying that it wants to extend the program beyond the current term that expires on March 31, 2026, it has not yet signed a deal continue delivering the reduced parental fees.
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Last fall the government reworked the way it assigned space creation targets in different regions of the province – instead of focusing on areas most in need of new spaces, it focused on areas that could more quickly create spaces, so Ontario had a better shot at meeting its overall target, the auditor said.
As well, while the number of registered early childhood educators in the system has increased, it's still below the province's target, and while the government estimated in 2022 that it would need 8,500 more ECEs by 2026, the auditor said that has now risen to 10,000.