The survival of many Ontario child-care centres is at risk due to irregular funding from Ottawa’s $10-a-day child-care program, says a child-care operator.
“Every one of our seven centres are in the red even though they’re full,” said Danielle Wittick, director of programming for Nyad Community Inc., a non-profit child-care operation with seven centres in Scarborough.
As part of the $10-a-day program, the government reimburses child-care centres a portion of the daily cost to care for each child under six years old. Ontario parents whose children attend a child-care centre enrolled in the program pay just over 50 per cent of the child-care provider’s fee.
But the government’s reimbursement rate for Ontario child-care centres remains what it was in 2022, despite the rising cost of living, says Wittick. The funding gap has resulted in Nyad Community Inc. operating at a loss since last year.
“Because of the cost of living, the cost of rents and leases and things like that, we raised all of our infant, toddler and preschool rates by seven per cent,” said Wittick.
She expected these fee hikes, along with the government’s annual reimbursement rate increase, to cover their increased costs. But the government’s rate hasn’t increased.
Wittick says the centre has lost about $5 a day for each child — around 380 in all — who qualify for the $10-a-day program.
“It is a mess,” said Wittick.
And the deficit is difficult to calculate because the reimbursement for the $10-a-day program is often less than expected, said Wittick. She said she has asked the City of Toronto, which is the level of government that distributes reimbursements under the program, why that is but has not received an answer.
“There is still not a rhyme or reason [to] how payments are handled,” said Wittick.
Stepping stone
In 2022, an Ontario pay scale agreement set the base wage for a registered early childcare educator in the subsidized program at $18 an hour. After pushback over this low wage, Ontario announced the base hourly wage would increase to $23.86 in November 2023 and rise to a maximum of $25 an hour in 2026.Â
“Staffing has become a huge issue because students are coming out of colleges… [and they] do not see how they can make a living in child care,” said Wittick.
Registered child-care educators are often disillusioned once they start working in child-care centres, said Morna Ballantyne, executive director at Child Care Now, a child-care advocacy association. They find their work is not only underpaid, but that they are expected to take on tasks unrelated to child care, such as cleaning toilets and floors.
Registered child-care workers are using placements in child-care centres as a “stepping stone” to enter other fields, such as teacher’s college or becoming a nanny.
“Every day I interview early childhood educators who are leaving daycares,” said Michelle Kelsey, founder of Nannies on Call, a national nanny agency. Many have said the overwhelming number of children, “red tape” and “lack of personal connection” have spurred them to consider working as a nanny instead.
The better pay also helps. The hourly rate to hire a nanny in urban centres starts at $25 an hour, said Kelsey.
Many families with multiple children opt for nannies to save on child-care costs, since nanny rates are set by the hour rather than determined by a price for each child.
Others look to sponsor nannies from abroad, says Manuela Gruber Hersch, founder of International Nannies and Homecare Ltd., which matches ​​nannies, au pairs and caregivers to families. Requests for sponsored nannies have not decreased since the $10-a-day program began, she said.
The shortage of workers interested in working in child-care centres could jeopardize the government’s plans to expand the $10-a-day program, says Ballantyne.
“Retention is such a problem that even if new programs open up, they can’t be staffed,” she said.
Correction: A prior version of this article incorrectly said that the pay scale agreement for a registered early childcare educator in Ontario’s subsidized program was set by the federal government.
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