KENORA – The survey stems from the provincial and federal government’s Canada Wide Early Learning and Care agreement which subsidence the cost of child care to $10 a day for children under six.
According to the federal government, “Ontario commits to using federal funding to increase the net number of licensed child care spaces for children under age six by flowing funds by the end of the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 to support the creation of 76,700 spaces by March 31, 2026, and 86,000 child care spaces by Dec. 31, 2026.”
Additionally, “federal funding will be used predominantly to support the creation of not-for-profit child care spaces to ensure that the existing proportion of not-for-profit licensed child care spaces for children age 0 to 5 will be maintained or increased by the end of this Agreement.”
However, the funding is only available to operators who are licensed.
For unlicensed daycare, The KDSB wants to work with and support home programs that are interested in becoming licensed if enough operators of unlicensed daycare are willing.
“There is a growing demand by families for affordable and licensed child care across all communities in the region. It is KDSB’s belief that licensed private home children care is a means to bring more care options to families. The participation in this survey will provide the KDSB with baseline input regarding the interest in becoming a licensed private home child care operator and the advantages that accompany this change,” says Henry Wall, chief administrative officer of the KDSB.
Benefits to becoming a licensed child care operator include access to provincial and federal funding supports and early years professional development and aiding children and families with access to affordable childcare.
More information, the online survey, and the pdf survey can be found by clicking the link. The survey will be open to private home child care operators within the Kenora District until Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, at 4:30 p.m.
