Excerpts
The provincial government is “at risk” of missing its targets under its child-care agreement with Ottawa, including reaching an average $10-a-day fee by next spring, Ontario’s auditor general has found.
“We found that the systems and procedures in place to meet the targets by the end of the agreement are not effective, and the commitments are at risk of not being met based on current projections and without changes to plans,” Auditor General Shelley Spence wrote in one of four special reports released on Wednesday.
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“Some enrolled families may also be eligible for a separate fee subsidy to reduce their parent fees,” the report stated. “By providing eligible families with the fee subsidy to lower their parent fees below $12 per day, the ministry expects to achieve an average parent fee of $10 per day across Ontario.”
However, the auditor general also found that enrolment in child care of lower-income families receiving full or partial fee subsidies separate from the CWELCC fee reductions decreased by 31 per cent from 2019 to 2023.
Some of the reasons for this include more demand for spots covered by the CWELCC program, making it more difficult for families, including those needing subsidies, to get a space.
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“Through this new approach, the Ministry aims to better achieve its commitment of adding 86,000 net new spaces, but these spaces may not be in the regions with highest need,” the auditor general wrote.
When it comes to the workforce, the province set a goal of having “qualified employees,” full-time registered early childhood educators (RECEs), making up at least 60 per cent of the workforce by the end of next March. As of last December, RECEs made up 59.5 per cent of full-time program staff.
The auditor general’s office estimated that an “additional 10,000 RECEs could be needed by December 2026.”
More to come.